Community Corner

Defense Attorney Wants Off Dekraai Case

A hearing will be held Monday afternoon to address a request by the accused salon shooter's lawyer to be removed from the death penalty case.

UPDATE: Facing costly trial, Dekraai switches to public defender. .

Attorneys representing , charged with murdering his ex-wife and seven other people in a Seal Beach beauty salon, will ask a judge this afternoon to let them off the death penalty case, according to prosecutors.  

It's unclear why attorneys from the Jarvis & Krieger firm in Long Beach feel they can no longer represent the 42-year-old defendant, said Deputy District Attorney Scott Simmons. The prosecutor said he has not had a chance to talk to Dekraai's attorneys, but said it's possible the firm lacks the resources to represent Dekraai.  

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``It's a death penalty case.  Those take a lot of money to defend,'' Simmons said.  

When Dekraai first appeared in court Oct. 14, defense attorney Robert Curtis said he needed more time to prepare. Curtis also asked Orange County Superior Court Judge Erick Larsh to order jail officials to give his client a prescribed anti-psychotic medicine and access to a ``spinal cord stimulator'' he has needed since a 2007 accident that left him disabled. 

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Larsh ordered a medical evaluation of Dekraai to see what medicine he might need, but left it up to the Orange County Sheriff's Department to decide what was appropriate.  

Messages left for Curtis today were not immediately returned.    

The request for anti-psychotic medicine led to speculation about a possible insanity plea.  

``I won't be surprised if we get an insanity plea,'' Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas told reporters after the hearing.  

Death penalty cases can be expensive because they require a great deal of investigation and require what amounts to two trials, Simmons said. If jurors find Dekraai guilty, then they must hear more testimony in another trial to decide whether to recommend the ultimate punishment.  

Dekraai is accused of carrying out , 500 Pacific Coast Highway, about 1:20 p.m. Oct. 12. He remains jailed without bail.   T

The eight people killed were the salon's co-owner, Randy Lee Fannin, 62; Victoria Ann Buzzo, 54; Lucia Bernice Kondas, 65; Laura Lee Elody, 46; Christy Lynn Wilson, 47; hairstylist Michelle Marie Fournier, 48, Dekraai's ex-wife; Michele Daschbach Fast, 47, and David Caouette, 64. Another woman who was shot -- 73-year-old Hattie Stretz -- survived and has been released from Long Beach Memorial Medical Center.  

-City News Service


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