Serial Murders Orange County

Randy Steven Kraft, a 44-year-old computer genius portrayed by prosecutors as perhaps the most prolific serial killer in the country, was condemned to death by a jury Friday for the gruesome murders of 16 young men in Orange County. Kraft sat with his hands folded, tapping his thumbs together, as he heard the death verdict. He whispered to one of his attorneys to have the 10 women and two men on the jury polled individually about their verdict.

"This trial should have been over in three months," Judge Donald A. McCartin snapped at lawyers for Randy Steven Kraft last week. On Friday, jurors fixed Kraft's punishment at death for 16 torture slayings, almost 11 months after testimony began, making it the longest criminal trial in the history of Orange County Superior Court. The slow pace frustrated the judge and the prosecution and sparked heated exchanges throughout the trial between McCartin and Kraft attorney C. Thomas McDonald.

The first weeks were the most hellish. The physical mutilations of young men, the castrations and tortures, the sexual perversions--all were introduced in the Santa Ana courtroom in pictures and testimony more brutally graphic than the 12 jurors and seven alternates could have ever imagined. Those first few days and weeks, juror Alfred Embrey Jr. used to wake up in a cold sweat in his Orange home, the nightmares of violent crimes still fresh in his mind.

Randy Steven Kraft, a 44-year-old computer expert portrayed by prosecutors as perhaps the most prolific serial killer in the country, was condemned to death by a jury Friday for the gruesome sex murders of 16 young men in Orange County. Kraft sat with his hands folded, tapping his thumbs together as he heard the death verdict, but showed no emotion. He whispered to one of his attorneys to have the 10 women and two men on the jury polled individually about their verdict.

While his case almost certainly will be among the most expensive in California history, Randy Steven Kraft may be executed before the public knows the cost of his trial. Superior Court Judge Luis A. Cardenas, who sealed the defense ledgers five years ago, said this week that he doesn't plan to unseal them until all of Kraft's appeals are exhausted. Unless Kraft is granted a new trial, the final appeal would continue to the moment Kraft steps into the gas chamber at San Quentin State Prison.

Arvetta and Denver Sayre of Santa Ana know that no one will ever be tried for the murder of their teen-age son 10 years ago. But Arvetta Sayre took vacation this week to see Randy Steven Kraft receive a jury's verdict. It's the closest thing to justice they expect to get. Fifteen-year-old Jeffre Sayre is one of 21 young men in Southern California whose deaths are linked to Kraft by prosecutors, but not included in his trial. Deputy Dist. Atty. Bryan F.

Jurors in the Randy Steven Kraft murder trial in Santa Ana completed their second full day of deliberations Thursday without reaching a decision about whether he should be executed or sentenced to life without parole. Some of the jurors asked for smoke breaks, and they have buzzed the courtroom when they wanted to go to lunch. But otherwise, they have been extremely quiet, and have had no questions about the jury instructions nor requests for testimony to be re-read.

Jurors in the Randy Steven Kraft murder trial in Santa Ana completed their first full day of deliberations Wednesday and are scheduled to continue today. The 10 women and two men on the jury convicted Kraft three months ago of first-degree murder in the deaths of 16 young men in Orange County. After a two-month penalty hearing, they now must decide whether to return a verdict of death or life in prison without parole.