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Ursus:
North County Times
Jury recommends death for molester in Orange County slaying
By: North County Times - | Posted: Tuesday, June 8, 2004 12:00 am

RIVERSIDE, Calif. (AP) - A jury recommended the death penalty Monday for a child molester convicted in the slaying 25 years ago of an Orange County teenager.

The jury in Riverside County deliberated for two days before voting to recommend the death penalty for James Lee Crummel.

Superior Court Judge Dennis McConaghy can either accept the jurors recommendation or impose a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole at a July 9 sentencing hearing.

The same jury convicted Crummel of first-degree murder with special circumstances last month of James "Jamie" Trotter, 13, who vanished on his way to catch a school bus in 1979.

Crummel is serving a 60-years-to-life sentence for molesting another Orange County boy, and was convicted of abusing children in Missouri and Wisconsin in the 1960s.

Prosecutors charged that Crummel, 60, murdered the Costa Mesa boy in April 1979 and then claimed to find his bones near Ortega Highway in 1990. Six years later the bones were identified as Trotter's. The following year, authorities arrested Crummel on suspicion of murder.

Crummel lived on the same Costa Mesa street where Trotter's family lived and photographs found in his home showed he had visited Cleveland National Forest in the 1970s, near where Trotter's bones were found, prosecutors said.

Defense attorney Mary Ann Galante argued that the case was based on assumption and that Crummel was singled out because of his criminal past.

Superior Court Judge Dennis McConaghy rejected an attempt by the defense to argue that the murder might be tied to notorious "Freeway Killer" William Bonin, who was executed in 1996 after being convicted of killing 14 boys in 1979 and 1980.


© Copyright 2009, North County Times - Californian, Escondido, CA

Ursus:
North County Times
Killer of boy whose bones were near Ortega Highway gets death sentence
By: JOHN HALL - Staff Writer | Posted: Saturday, July 10, 2004 12:00 am


James Lee Crummel, right, confers with defense attorney Richard Myers in court Monday morning.
David Carlson

RIVERSIDE -- They all knew it was coming -- that James Lee Crummel would be sent to death row -- but the victim's family still sat in the front row of the courtroom Friday, holding hands and waiting to finally hear the judge make it official.

Riverside County Superior Court Judge Dennis McConaghy did just that, ordering that the 60-year-old serial child molester be transported to San Quentin's death row.

Crummel was convicted in May of killing 13-year-old Jamey Trotter, whose bones were found in a desolate area off the Ortega Highway west of Lake Elsinore in 1990. It took six more years for authorities to identify the remains as those of the missing teen.

Jamey disappeared in April 1979 from a Costa Mesa neighborhood, where he and his mother were staying in a motel while waiting to move into their new Huntington Beach home.

On Friday, Barbara Trotter Brogli said she is relieved that her son's killer will die in prison.

"I feel good that he'll never roam free again to hurt anyone else," she said after the sentencing. "I am totally convinced he killed Jamey."

One of Jamey's two older brothers, Jeffrey Trotter, is now 41 years old and said Friday that even though it's now been 25 years since the disappearance, "it's like it happened yesterday" because of memories dredged up during the court proceedings.

Jeffrey Trotter spoke at the hearing before the sentencing, saying that Crummel saw Jamey as nothing more than a toy.

"You are as guilty and as deserving of death as anyone could be," he said to Crummel.

Jeffrey Trotter said he is relying on his faith in God to help him get to a point where he can feel forgiveness for the man who killed his younger brother.

After the hearing, Trotter said he believes he will get there someday. Motioning to his chin, he said his anger is "all up here right now. I need time to push it down. How soon I'll get there, I don't know."

Much like when the jury sentenced him to death last month, Crummel stared straight ahead and showed no emotion at Friday's hearing. Crummel was convicted of first-degree murder and a special circumstance that the killing happened while he committed lewd acts on a child.

One of his attorneys, Mary Ann Galante, draped her arm across the back of Crummel's chair Friday and softly patted his back as the judge read the death sentence into the court record.

Galante said afterward that Crummel's only statement to her was to thank her and tell her that he knew she did the best she could.

Supervising Deputy District Attorney Bill Mitchell had harsh words for the man whose case he has been working on since 1996.

"The world would have been a better place without him," Mitchell said outside the courthouse. "He is what everyone considers evil and vile."

Crummel has convictions for crimes involving children dating back 43 years, when, as a 17-year-old in the U.S. Army, he abducted two boys, ages 13 and 11, tied them to a tree in the woods of Missouri and sexually assaulted them.

After serving a prison sentence for that, Crummel kidnapped a 9-year-old boy in 1967, taking him to the desert in Arizona, where the boy died. It wasn't until 1983 that Crummel was convicted for the boy's murder, and he served a short prison term before being released when an appellate court overturned the conviction.

Crummel has also been convicted of child molestations in both San Bernardino and Orange counties -- the latter resulting in a life sentence.

Mitchell said Friday that he also believes Crummel is responsible for the death of a young boy who disappeared from the Big Bear area. Authorities there investigated Crummel for that in 1995, but could not find enough evidence to charge him, the prosecutor said.

"The worst punishment possible is what Crummel deserves" for his years of crimes, ending with Jamey's murder, Mitchell said.

Contact staff writer John Hall at (909) 676-4315, Ext. 2628, or jhall@californian.com.

Posted in Local on Saturday, July 10, 2004 12:00 am Updated: 10:43 pm.


© Copyright 2009, North County Times - Californian, Escondido, CA

Ursus:
(WARNING) Bad stuff Happens to good people "James Trotter"


* "cut down version":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DhG1Q7pV_T4
* full version:
http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/video ... 7696432621

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