Dead And Buried (31 page)
Authors: Corey Mitchell
“Threw those away at the Texaco. They’re white Reeboks.”
“The reason you threw your tennis shoes away was ... ?”
“They had little spots of blood on them.”
“After you buried Aundria, that’s the same night that you brought Roslynn up to the cabin, right?”
“Yeah. Finally realized how much I needed her.”
“What was it that separated Roslynn from someone like Rachel or Aundria?”
“I don’t know.”
“Were they like two different lifestyles? Roslynn never saw the Rex that was around Rachel or Aundria?”
“She didn’t.”
“Is there anything from your first offense that got you caught that you learned, you knew, you couldn’t do in this one and you had to do something different?”
“Fingerprints.”
“So that’s the reason for the gloves, right? But you didn’t use gloves with Rachel, right?”
“No.”
“Your fingerprints could have been left on that bridge railing,right? Were you worried about that?”
“Never thought about it until right now.”
“How about identity? Is that why you used the nylons over your head with Aundria and the pillowcases?”
“Yeah.”
“Anything in your relationship with Roslynn ever go sour as far as your sexual relationship? Did you ever scare her in any way?”
“I don’t think so.”
“Did you ever tie her up?”
“No.”
“Did you ever sodomize her?”
“We tried a couple of times. It hurt too much.”
“It was a voluntary type of thing?”
“Yeah.”
“Someone told me that Roslynn was possibly bisexual.”
“Where the hell’d you get that?”
“I don’t know.”
“No.”
Hobson was ready to close up shop for the day. “Hang loose for just a second here. Let me see if I haven’t forgot everything.”
“I’m not in a real big hurry to run back and get locked up again”—Krebs calmly spoke to Hobson—“so if you want to come up and ask some more questions, that’s all right too.”
Hobson decided he did indeed want to ask Krebs a few more questions. He pulled up his chair and sat down next to Krebs. “This is a tough question, but try to answer it truthfully.If we hadn’t come or your parole officer hadn’t come and violated you—”
“Would this have happened again ... ?” Krebs interrupted knowing where Hobson was going with this line of questioning.“No.”
“Now think about it before you say that, because that’s what you said after Rachel. But then you went and you started drinking a little bit.”
“No,” Krebs emphatically repeated.
“It’s probably a good possibility it could happen again if you kept drinking, right?”
“Nah. I never killed anybody with my hands before, Larry.”
“The things you did this time with Aundria, were those something that you had a fantasy about in prison?”
“Yeah.”
“Is that to punish her because she’s a woman?”
“Maybe.”
“Did your fantasy ever involve killing her?”
“No.”
“You must have had more than one fantasy, right?”
“I think they all died.”
Hobson was about ready to wrap it up for real this time. “I try to put myself in your spot, as to what I would do, but I’m having a hard time.”
“How can you do that? You’re sane.”
“Well, you’re sane.”
“Now maybe.”
“You’ve always been sane; you just have fantasies that got out of control. Fantasies that became realities.”
Detective Hobson was done with Rex Krebs. The convict looked up at the authority figure and asked him, “I’m being a big help to you, ain’t I?”
FIFTY-THREE
Detective Hobson was still not free to go. Rex Krebs’s lead defense attorney, James Maguire III, stepped up to the witnessstand to cross-examine him. His questioning was short and succinct.
“Isn’t it true, that after you had confronted him with that information,” Maguire inquired, referring to the bloody jump seat, “he basically became silent and stopped talking to you?”
“Yes, sir,” Hobson responded politely.
“In fact, he was silent for a period of about fifteen or sixteenminutes while you talked to him and asked him to continue with the interview. Is that right?”
“That’s correct.”
“During that same period of time, you told him that you knew that this was a situation that he had something in him that was beyond his control that caused him to do these things. You told him that, didn’t you?”
“That’s what I told him, yes.”
“Do you recall that when Roslynn Moore came into the room where Rex Krebs was located, he said, ‘The Rex Krebs that did this is not the Rex Krebs that you know.’ Remember that statement?”
“Yes.”
“And she became very upset at this disclosure, is that true?”
“She did.”
“In fact, paramedics had to be called?”
“Yes, they did.”
“You then get into a discussion with Mr. Krebs about the feelings that he has,” Maguire continued. “Eventually you identified them as fantasies. Do you remember that part of the conversation?”
“Yes, I do.” Hobson nodded as he replied.
“You said that these thoughts or fantasies obviously have never disappeared and reappear when you’re drinking, is that right, and he says ‘Right.’ Do you remember that question and answer?”
“Yes.”
“I assume that you asked about fantasies for a reason. You asked Mr. Krebs about fantasies for a reason?”
“That’s correct.”
“And that’s because you knew that people involved in sex offenses are often responding to fantasies that they have about things that they end up doing, crimes that they end up committing, is that right?”
“That’s correct.”
“And finally Mr. Krebs says, ‘You don’t always think real good when you’re drunk, obviously.’ Remember that comment?”
“Yes.”
Maguire, however, had not finished. After a quick recess he had more questions for the detective. “He told you that he blamed his mother because she knew what his dad was doing but she didn’t stop it or take him back. He told you that also, didn’t he?”
“That’s what Rex Krebs told me, yes.”
“Do you remember saying to him, ‘I need to know what happened. I need to know where I can find Aundria and Rachel. Can you help me find them? I know you care. There were tears. I’m not wrong about this, Rex. Where there’s tears, that tells me somebody cares. People don’t fake tears. If you didn’t give a shit, there wouldn’t have been tears. So the tears tell me a lot.
“ ‘It doesn’t make it right, but it tells me what ever happened has bothered you a great deal, and it shows me that you care. You’re not a cold-blooded killer.’ Do you remember telling him that?”
“Yes, that’s what I told him.”
Maguire was finished. For now.
Trice, however, was not.
Hobson remained seated in the witness chair. Trice wanted to clear up a few things in the redirect examination. “You brought up the fact that Mr. Maguire’s client is a person of honesty and integrity. You don’t believe that, do you?”
“No.”
“Mr. Maguire brought up the fact that you told him that you thought the defendant is a person who cares. You don’t believe that, do you?”
“No.”
“Why were you saying such things to him?”
“Unfortunately, crimes this heinous, you have to say some things that you don’t really believe or mean. To get someone to sit down and talk to you about something this terrible, you have to have some rapport. And before that person’s going to talk to you, they have to respect you; they have to like you; they have to trust you. And, unfortunately, to get to that point, you have to say some things that you don’t believe or mean.”
“Even when he talked about all the intimate details of how he killed these girls, did he ever cry then?”
“Rex Krebs did not cry.”
Prosecutor Trice had no more questions.
Now Maguire had some serious salvaging to undertake: “You didn’t say, ‘By the way, Rex, this is an investigation technique I’m using. I don’t really believe this myself,’ did you?”
“No, I did not.”
“You wanted him to believe you, right?”
“That’s what I was talking about, the rapport building that you need to have.”
“But in order for you to have some credibility with him, you have to be saying things that have some basis in fact, don’t you think so?”
“No,” Hobson bluntly replied.
There was nothing else James Maguire III could do. He had no more questions for the witness. Detective Hobson finallystepped down.
John Trice and Tim Covello knew the case was closed.
“People rest their case.”
Judge Barry LaBarbera responded, “OK. Mr. Maguire?”
“Your Honor, we have no testimony to offer at this time. Defense rests also.”
FIFTY-FOUR
Prosecutor John Trice felt confident, yet somewhat insecure.Whenever it came time to give a closing argument, his nerves would get to him—especially in such an important case as the Rex Krebs double-murder trial. Still, he felt confidentafter Larry Hobson’s testimony. He believed that once the jury had seen Krebs’s confession, the case ended. Now he had to make it official.
Trice opened up his presentation on a light note. He mentionedto the twelve assembled jury members that he seemed to be suffering from allergies. This seemed to lessen the enormityof the conclusion that he was about to give.
“On behalf of the people of San Luis Obispo County, I’d like to thank you for your attention the last few weeks. It’s been a long process that began with the abductions and the investigation, the eventual arrest and the charging decisions that finally led to this trial.”
Trice discussed the various roles performed by the legal representatives for both sides as well as the judge’s responsibility.He then read, one more time, all of the charges placed on Rex Krebs’s head. Every count for his crimes against Rachel Newhouse. Every count for his crimes against AundriaCrawford. He then moved in for the kill.
“In this case the proof and analysis of people versus Rex Allan Krebs is not complex. First, because of the confession obtainedafter the defendant was confronted after he lied and lied and lied, after he was confronted with the blood evidence that was gathered by the investigators in this case, and once he was confronted by the property taken from Aundria’s home, the property he stole, as he stole her.
“And secondly, this case is not very complex because of the legal doctrine called the felony murder rule.” He jumped right into the definition of first-degree murder under the felony murder rule.
“I want to talk to you and show how simply it fits this case. ‘The unlawful killing of a human being, whether intentional, unintentional, or accidental, which occurs during the commissionof the crime of kidnapping, rape, or sodomy, is murder of the first degree when the perpetrator had the specificintent to commit that crime.’
“So, as it goes with this case, if the defendant had the specificintent to commit kidnapping, rape, or sodomy, and during the course of any of those crimes somebody dies, even if it’s an accident, he’s guilty of murder in the first degree. Very simple.
“And so, as in our case, once this defendant kidnaps Rachel, once this defendant kidnaps Aundria, and they die, he is guilty of murder in the first degree since their deaths occur during the commission of kidnapping. That’s how simple it is.
“So even if you want to believe this cock-and-bull story that Rachel Newhouse killed herself, you want to believe that, go right ahead. Even if you want to believe that, he is still guilty of first-degree murder under the felony murder rule. That’s how simple that is.”
Trice made his point, clear and simple. He concluded by hinting at Rex Krebs’s possible future. “There will come a time, weeks from now at the end of the penalty phase, when I will have a lot more to say about what Rex Allan Krebs, this animal, did to Rachel and Aundria. And we will talk then about the price he’s going to pay for all this mayhem.
“But for now, Mr. Covello and I have proved this case beyonda reasonable doubt, as I said we would, and now I ask you to do your duty to return verdicts of guilt on all of those charges and each of those special circumstances.
“Thank you.”
Judge LaBarbera turned toward the defense counsel table. “Ms. Ashbaugh.”
“Yes, Your Honor,” the immaculate defense attorney acknowledgedthe judge, then focused on the twelve jury members. “Good morning, ladies and gentlemen of the jury.”
Ashbaugh zeroed in on Larry Hobson’s interrogation of Rex Krebs. She spoke of how Hobson mentioned that Krebs was someone who cares, that he had seen Rex cry and he wanted to help the police find the bodies of the two young women.
Ashbaugh then reminded the jurors of the various witnessesthey heard testimony from during the trial. “You’ve also heard from the most important witness—that’s Rex Krebs himself, the person who told what happened.
“But as each witness has testified, there has been the story within the story that we told you about. There has been the story of the small boy, neglected and abandoned by his mother, the child abused by his father, a boy so psychologically brokenthat he fantasized about women since the age of fourteen. A man so driven that he destroys his opportunity to marry, to raise a child, and fulfill a promising career at 84 Lumber.
“You’ve seen the two sides of Rex Krebs. You’ve seen that struggle between good and evil.
“This information has not been given to you to provide an excuse. No. We will not and will never ask you to excuse this conduct. We’re here to ask you to consider the why. Why could this happen in the beautiful college town of San Luis Obispo? And why could it happen to these two women?”
Ashbaugh had definitely grabbed the jurors’ attention.
“The why is just as important as the what.”
Ashbaugh acknowledged that Krebs willingly confessed to Larry Hobson. Her strategy, however, would be to force the jurors to determine if the prosecution had actually proven Krebs’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.
Her weapon of choice?
“First I’m going to talk about what I call the ‘corpus delicti’ rule. Mr. Trice referenced it. He didn’t use that fancy Latin name. I use it. I took Latin. I figure I should try to incorporate that in a little bit.
“It’s a basic foundational requirement that a person should not be found guilty of a crime based exclusively on his statements.As a result, the law requires that before you can consider the statements of a defendant in establishing his guilt of a crime, you first must determine that there is some evidence, independent of his statements, that supports a findingthat a crime occurred.”
Ashbaugh moved on to the next topic. “The second legal issue is whether there was an intent to kill and whether there was a deliberate, premeditated murder of both Aundria Crawfordand Rachel Newhouse.
“With respect to murder, the courts and the rules of the law say that you need to have malice. It can be express or implied.
“Under the facts before you, you cannot find beyond a reasonabledoubt that Rex Krebs had an intent to kill Rachel Newhouse and that there was a willful, deliberate, and premeditatedmurder of Ms. Newhouse.”
Ashbaugh clearly laid out her points of argument and vigorouslydefended her client. “Let’s look at the information that you have. From the moment Ms. Andrea West parted ways with Ms. Newhouse at the bar, Tortilla Flats, in Novemberof 1998, until the time of the exhumation of her body, the only information as to what happened comes from Rex Krebs himself.
“The prosecutor has argued and suggested to you he’s a liar with his ‘cock-and-bull’ story. He’s the personification of evil. He shouldn’t be believed. How very convenient.
“Let me digress and tell you a little story. When I was a littlegirl, my grandfather used to come over and visit with my sister and I. And he liked to spend time with us. And sometimesmy mom was making dinner or something, he would call me in and say, ‘Tish’—that’s my nickname—‘want to play a little game?’
“And he’d pull out of his pocket a little quarter like this. And he’d say, ‘OK, this is the game. I toss this and you call it, but heads I win and tails you lose.’
“Well, he’d do that over and over. I thought my grandfather was the luckiest person around because—remember the rule—heads I win, tails you lose.
“Well, one day my mother sauntered through that room. She stopped. She looked at what he was doing and she said, ‘Dad, that’s just not fair.’
“Now, why do I tell you this story? I tell you this story becauseit reminds me of what the prosecutor wants you to do. He wants you to take all those pieces of information that helps him prove and build his case and say believe it, he’s telling the truth about all those things. But then when there are pieces of information that he doesn’t like or he thinks doesn’t really support the theory that he wants to advance, he says you just disregard that. Mr. Krebs is a liar.
“Well, that’s just not fair. Remember, there is no physical evidence on that bridge that links Rex Krebs to the abduction of Rachel Newhouse. They didn’t find his blood. They don’t have his hair. They never did find a fingerprint. They don’t have a footprint. They don’t have a tire print. They don’t presentany evidence that would show anything that would link Mr. Krebs to that crime scene.”
Ashbaugh next focused on Parole Officer David Zaragoza’s discovery of Aundria Crawford’s eight ball key chain, the key piece of evidence that led to Krebs’s arrest and subsequent charges of murder. She claimed it was a generic key chain, that anyone could buy it at a convenience store. “There’s nothing that you specifically can use to say that’s Aundria’s. I’d suggest to you that with only that piece of information, they could not have brought a prosecution of Mr. Krebs.
“The second piece we have is the jump seat. We know that the laboratory didn’t really start comparison analysis until April nineteenth.” Ashbaugh was referring to the tests run on the Jennifer Street Bridge blood by the DOJ lab. “The report was not generated until September of 1999. I’d suggest there’s probably no conclusive proof on April twenty-second that they had a match.
“So why am I discussing this with you? It’s because the policedid not have sufficient evidence to arrest Rex Krebs prior to confessing on April twenty-second.
“One of the most telling questions asked by Mr. Hobson was one of the first ones on the twenty-second. ‘Rex, will we find them alive?’ They didn’t know. They only have suspicions. They could not locate those bodies.
“On the morning of the 22
nd
, everything changes. Rex Krebs made a choice. He chose to tell them the story and lead them to the bodies. But it was he alone who brought closure to these families and this case. He did not receive any favors or promises from Mr. Hobson. No deals for leniency were made. He just told them.
nd
, everything changes. Rex Krebs made a choice. He chose to tell them the story and lead them to the bodies. But it was he alone who brought closure to these families and this case. He did not receive any favors or promises from Mr. Hobson. No deals for leniency were made. He just told them.
“Remember Mr. Hobson said, ‘Rex, everyone says that you have honesty, integrity, and truth. Rex, help us. Rex, give closureto these families.’
“And Rex did. And when asked by Mr. Hobson why he finallydecided to confess, what was the one word he used? ‘Conscience.’ ”
Ashbaugh had reached the conclusion of her closing argument.
“I know the past two weeks, and especially this week, has been difficult for all of you. It’s not easy to be here. It’s not easy to listen to this information regarding the deaths of Rachel Newhouse and Aundria Crawford. Each and every person in this courtroom has been deeply affected.
“We thank you for your attention and your efforts. We now turn this case over to you to assess the extent and the level of Rex Allan Krebs’s responsibility with regard to each and every charge and allegation made against him.
“Thank you.”
Since the burden of proof rests with the state, they have the final say. John Trice approached the jury box. He stopped, looked over his shoulder at the defendant, and slowly shook his head. He looked back at the jury.
“Rex Krebs. What a gracious thing he has done for the members of the community in San Luis Obispo. What a great helper he has been. One of the more outrageous things I‘ve heard in twenty-something years in this business.” The disgustin his voice was obvious.
Trice took the jury back to the felony murder rule. “We don’t have to talk about premeditation and deliberation on Rachel Newhouse because this defendant is guilty of both these murders under a simple analysis under the felony murderrule. Once he kidnapped them and they die, he’s done. Murder in the first degree.”
Trice steamed through his rebuttal. “And you know who she didn’t talk about?” referring to Ashbaugh. “She didn’t talk about Shelly Crosby. And I wonder why she didn’t? She stands up here and basically is saying because her slick client, this gem of our community, who’s so gracious in helping us solve this horrible crime and bringing closure to those families,this nice fellow—because he was so successful in lying to the police and evading apprehension for so long, that the bodies of these girls rotted in the ground and whatever evidencewe may have had went with them.”
Trice moved in one more time for what he assumed would be the final nail in Krebs’s coffin. “You know what Rex Allan Krebs does to a woman when he cuts her clothes off. You know what Rex Allan Krebs does when he crawls in a woman’s window in the middle of the night with rope and a knife. He goes in to tie them up, to control them, to rape and sodomize them. Ask Shelly Crosby.”
Trice turned to the judge and, with a note of disgust in his voice, stated, “That’s all I have.”
After a lunch break Judge LaBarbera read the concluding instructionsfor deliberation to the jury. Standard protocol: pick a foreperson; if there were any questions about evidence, ask and they would get to see the information in question, etc. One key issue he stressed is that if they found the defendant not guilty of murder in the first degree, they then had to go back and determinewhether he was guilty in the second degree.
No one on either side of the counsel table knew how long the jury would take. Would it be a slam dunk and over beforethe day ended? Could it take longer than the actual presentation of the evidence itself? No one could be sure.
Other books
His Name Is Sir (The Power to Please #3) by Deena Ward
The Two-Family House: A Novel by Lynda Cohen Loigman
Tattooed Soul by Lynn, Kera
Shadows Return by Lynn Flewelling
Where Two Ways Met by Grace Livingston Hill
Los mundos perdidos by Clark Ashton Smith
Tea With Milk by Allen Say
While the World Is Still Asleep (The Century Trilogy Book 1) by Petra Durst-Benning
Sleep Tight by Jeff Jacobson
Tales from the Hood by Buckley, Michael