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Authors: Corey Mitchell

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“Well, he stopped himself for ten years at Soledad, right?”
“No, sir... .”
“He didn’t?”
“He was stopped for ten years at Soledad.”
“Did he have those sexual urges for ten years at Soledad and Corcoran?”
“He had them initially. He worked very hard in those early years and was able to get them down and thought they were gone. I would say that they were latent rather than they were entirely missing.”
Trice was almost done with the witness. “I’m sure you asked him what steps he took after he got out of prison to try to resist the urges. Did you ask him that?”
“I don’t remember that specifically, but if you’ll allow me to say more than ‘yes’ or ‘no,’ I can tell you what I did ask him.
“He said that after these urges had come back, and he dates it to the incident in which he was in the bar fight, that after fighting so hard for so many years to resist it, he kind of becamedemoralized and gave up and kind of stopped fighting as hard as he had previously.”
John Trice had heard enough. “That’s all I have. Thank you.” He turned his back to Dr. Berlin and walked back to the prosecution table.
John Trice, however, changed his mind. He was not done with Dr. Berlin. He wanted to address Dr. Berlin’s notes that he took during the two interviews with Rex Krebs.
“You wrote, ‘Roz tried to tell that he had trouble as a kid, that it wasn’t his fault,’ and he said, ‘Bullshit.’ Is that the word he used?”
“Yes. That’s correct,” responded Dr. Berlin.
“Said, ‘It’s my fault no matter what I go through as a kid.’ ”
“That’s right.”
“He admits responsibility. ‘Think and do what’s right. I didn’t think and do what’s right.’ Is that what he told you?”
“Yes, sir.”
“He told you when he got out in 1997 if he had a doctor to talk with, maybe it would have made a difference, he would be less likely to act out, is that correct?”
“That’s correct.”
“He told you he didn’t trust that doctor with parole?”
“That’s correct, and then he says, ‘I realize I should have.’ ”
“Later in there he told you that the word ‘fantasy,’ he never thought about that. His word may have been ‘daydream,’ correct?”
“Yes. He said that the police officer had used the word ‘fantasy.’ ”
“He says he got this ‘fantasy’ word from Larry?”
“Yes, meaning Mr. Hobson.”
“And then you went on and you were talking to him. ‘How do you go from fantasy to action?’ Is that correct?”
“Yes. He said, ‘I don’t know. Try to resist. Also at times just go with them. Little bit of both. No, don’t want fantasies to be part of my life. I’d like to get rid of them. Get rid of hard. Hard while they’re there. While in prison thought I had it beat, guess I kidded myself.’ ”
“You actually asked him, ‘Why didn’t you seek help?’ Right?”
“Yes, I did. He said, ‘It’s not something you tell even your closest friend. I couldn’t bring myself to do that.’ ”
“There was another reason, right?”
“His last statement there is, I apologize for the language, ‘Doctors are pretty fucking expensive.’ ”
“He told you the only doctor that doesn’t cost too much is the doctor he had from the parole department, right?”
“Yes, and he said he didn’t trust him.”
“Well, he said, he’d stick his—excuse my language—his ass back in prison.”
“That’s correct.”
Trice moved on to ask how Krebs felt after he murdered Rachel Newhouse. “You asked him a question, and then he said, ‘When Rachel died, although not my intention for her to die, knew she was dead, and not shit I could do to bring her back.’ Is that what he said?”
“That’s correct.”
“He went on to say nothing in the world changed, right?”
“Well, ‘Nothing in the world changed. Took and buried her, told self to never do that again.’ ”
“Then you wrote, ‘Killing Aundria’—excuse my language—‘not fuck with him a bit,’ is that correct?”
“He said that act at the time had not bothered him, and he tied it into having an awful experience as a child. But he said as soon as he realized what he had done, ‘it just disgusted me.’ ”
“You asked him why there was so much violence on the bridge, apparently. Did you ask him that?”
“Yes, I did. (He said) ‘That’s what I lived with from nine to seventeen.’ ”
Trice asked Dr. Berlin about Krebs’s thoughts on the attempted rape of Anishka Constantine. “He told you that one was easier because he had done that once before, is that correct?”
“Yes. He basically said once you’ve crossed the line, it’s easier to do it a second time.”
“He told you how much he started to drink again. If he had to point the finger at one thing, it would probably be the alcohol?”
“Yes. Then he went on to explain that alcohol, in his words, ‘uninhibits my judgment.’ ”
“You would point to the fantasies as the driving force, not the alcohol, right?”
“Yes. As I said, alcohol is like pouring fuel on the fire.”
“It was his understanding, if he wanted to, he could have requested a placement at a state hospital?”
“Absolutely.”
“He never did that, did he?”
“He just explained why he had deceived himself into thinkingit wasn’t necessary.”
“He told you that three times he sat in his living room waitingfor his father to come home, and he planned to kill him but he couldn’t bring himself to do it.
“Wouldn’t a plan to shoot somebody be an indication of an antisocial personality disorder?”
“I think it was an indication,” Dr. Berlin responded, “of how badly abused he was as a child. He couldn’t take it anymore.He had thoughts of killing his father, and if anything, he had a conscience that wouldn’t let him do it.”
Trice returned to Krebs’s killing of Rachel and Aundria. “You asked him, ‘Why were you so brutal?’ ”
“Yes. And he says, ‘The only time [I use] any brutality is to gain control.’ ”
“Then you said, ‘Do you care?’ And he said, ‘At the time, no.’ ”
“Yeah. Well, he said, ‘At the time, no. Now I care that I caused them grief I’ve caused them.’
“I thought it was a very candid and not self-serving statement,”Dr. Berlin continued.
“Wait a minute”—Trice leaped through the open door—“On the next page right after that, you said to him, ‘Why don’t you just say I’m just so sorry?’ Right?”
“Yes, sir.”
“And he said—excuse my language—‘Because sorry means fuck.’ Isn’t that what he said?”
“The answer is yes.”
“And then he went on to say, ‘It doesn’t change anything, solve anything, or even help my conscience. It doesn’t help them, and it doesn’t salve my conscience.’ Isn’t that what he said?”
“That’s correct.”
Trice then turned the cross-examination over to the topics of blame. “You said, ‘ Say, if my father had spent a little more time with his son rather than work, drink, sex, perhaps I turned out fine.’ Right?”
“Yes. And then he said he’s not blaming his father but can’t help wondering if it would have been different.”
“So he didn’t blame his father?”
“No. He did not.”
Concerning the two 1987 cases, Trice asked Dr. Berlin: “He thought alcohol was a contributory factor, is that correct?”
“It is.”
“At one point he was talking about methamphetamine; he said that was just an excuse, something to hide behind. It’s not the meth that caused the problems; it’s the fantasies. Is that what he told you?”
“Yes.”
“He told you he was beginning to have problems with fantasieswhen Roslynn was in one room and he was in the other room masturbating to a rape fantasy, is that correct?”
“That’s correct.”
“Did he give you a time frame on that?”
“That period after the bar fight.”
“At the bottom of thirty-seven, you said, ‘If you could do it over again, what could have stopped you?’ ”
“He says, ‘What could I have done to stop myself?’ He kind of repeats my question.”
“And he said, ‘Only what I never could have done, ask somebody for help,’ ” Trice added.
“Yes.”
“And he went on to say that he went into prison wanting help, that he didn’t get any, but he didn’t blame the prison system.Is that what he told you?”
“Yes. His exact words. He didn’t get help.
“He doesn’t blame them, but what he learned when he went in, everybody in prison looks down on his crime, so he hid in the woodwork and didn’t ask for help,” Berlin added.
“Then he goes on to say, ‘Reach a point—’ ”
Berlin interrupted: “Yes, ‘Reach a point of not want kill anyone but stop care about self and stop fight urge to rape or more. Try to stop think about it like it would just go away. Not actually fight like did before.’
“And then I asked him,” Berlin continued, “if his resolve was weakened—and I don’t know if you want me to continue?”
“No,” Trice stated succinctly. “My question was when he said not actually fight like he did before, what period of time are we talking about there?”
“That’s a fair question. I think he’s talking about after he killed Rachel and before Aundria, that at some point he just gives up to the illness, if I can put it that way.”
“No further questions.” Trice walked back to his chair.
FIFTY-SEVEN
The prosecution brought in their own expert witness in violence and sexual sadism to combat the testimony of Dr. Berlin. Dr. Park Dietz, renowned forensic psychiatrist, had sat in the courtroom since Monday, April 30, 2001. The court allowedhim to hear the testimony of Dr. Berlin. He did not take the witness stand until late Thursday morning, May 3, 2001.
At $500 an hour, most attorneys would not have an expert witness merely sit and listen for three days.
The prosecution, however, believed he would be worth every penny.
The reason why could be found in Dr. Dietz’s curriculum vitae, or résumé. The doctor owns two companies: Park Dietz and Associates, a firm that provides consultations for attorneysin both criminal and civil matters of litigation, and Threat Assessment Group, a violence prevention firm that works for large corporations, government agencies, and celebrities to insure the safety of their clients. His businesses are located in the South Bay, about fifty minutes southwest of Los Angeles, specifically in Newport Beach, California.
Dr. Dietz graduated from Cornell University in 1970. He received his medical degree from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, the same school that Dr. Berlin received his medical degree from as well, in 1975. He earned his master’sdegree in public health from Johns Hopkins that same year. He later received his Ph.D. in sociology from the same university.
Dr. Dietz and Dr. Berlin were both residents at Johns HopkinsHospital from 1975 to 1977. Dr. Dietz transferred to the University of Pennsylvania, where he completed his residency.
Dr. Dietz’s first job out of school was as an assistant professorof psychiatry at the Harvard Medical School from 1978 to 1982. His initial position was the director of forensic psychiatry at Harvard’s private hospital, McLean Hospital. He also oversaw a program at the notorious Bridgewater State Hospital, a maximum-security prison for the criminally insane,where he worked for two years.
In 1984 Dr. Dietz’s world changed instantly. He received a request from the United States Attorney’s Office in Washington,D.C., to oversee the evaluation of John Hinckley Jr., better known as the young man who attempted to assassinate then-PresidentRonald Reagan in 1981 to prove his love for actress Jodie Foster. He worked on the case for the next year.
Dr. Dietz returned to Boston, where he conducted research for a year on the relationship between mental disorder and criminal behavior. He then took a job as the medical director of the Institute of Law Psychiatry and Public Policy at the University of Virginia. He received a promotion to professor of law and professor of behavioral medicine and psychiatry. He continued his research, which took him around the country,including the FBI’S Behavioral Science Unit at Quantico, Virginia, now known as the Profiling and Behavioral AssessmentUnit. The BSU has become famous for launching the “profiling” careers of Robert Ressler and John Douglas, the inspiration for the Jack Crawford character played by Scott Glenn in the multiple Academy Award–winning film
The Silenceof the Lambs
, which starred Anthony Hopkins as serial killer Hannibal Lecter and, ironically enough, Jodie Foster as FBI Agent Clarice Starling. Dr. Dietz has been the forensic psychiatry consultant for the BSU since 1981.
By the late 1980s Dr. Dietz made an important decision. He no longer wanted to be a full-time academic. Subsequently he packed his bags and headed West to open his two businesses, where he still resides and works.
Due to Dr. Dietz’s expertise on violence and the criminal mind, he has testified in hundreds of murder trials. Trice asked the doctor to list some of the more notorious cases.
“You were involved in the Jeffrey Dahmer case?”
“Yes,” replied Dr. Dietz. “I was the government’s expert on the case, and I spent three days interviewing Mr. Dahmer.”
“Susan Smith case?”
“Yes. I was a consultant to the DA’s office. That’s the woman who drowned her two children but pretended that they had been kidnapped by someone else.”
“William Bonin, the ‘Freeway Killer’?”
“Yes.”
“Richard Allen Davis, the Polly Klaas case?”
“I was an expert in that case and testified at the sentencing of Mr. Davis.”
“Robert Bardo—he killed Rebecca Schaeffer, the actress—is that correct?”
“I was a defense witness in that case.”
“The Ng case in Orange County?”
“Charles Ng and Leonard Lake were two serial killers from Calaveras County who had sadistically tortured their victims, and I consulted to the attorney general’s office.”
“Joel Rifkin, the New York sexual sadist?”
“He killed seventeen prostitutes, and I testified at his trial after I examined him.”
“Arthur Shawcross, New York serial killer?”
“Yes. He too strangled, I think, seventeen prostitutes, and I examined him and testified.”
“The Menendez brothers in Los Angeles?”
“I examined Lyle Menendez, and testified at the retrial in his case.”
“Ted Kaczynski, the ‘Unabomber’?”
“I worked on that case for a very long time for the FBI and later for the prosecutors from the U.S. Attorney’s Office.”
“You testified for the Ronald Goldman family against O.J. Simpson?”
“Yes.”
“Working on the Cary Stayner case in Yosemite?” Stayner was convicted of killing Carole and Juli Sund, Silvina Pelosso, and also Joie Armstrong.
“Yes, I am.”
“You’ve worked on some of the school shooting cases in this country; is that correct?”
“Yes. I already did exams and finished my work in the Oregon school shooting by Kip Kinkel. The Georgia school shooting by T.J. Solomon, and I have yet to do the work I’ve been retained to do on Mr. Charles “Andy” Williams, who did the Santee, California, school shooting.
“And a team of us this fall will be doing the psychiatric autopsieson Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris, who did the school shooting at Columbine.”
Once Trice established Dr. Dietz’s expertise as a forensic psychiatrist, he steered the discussion to Rex Krebs.
“Can you tell the jury the initial work of evaluation you did in this case?”
“I received a phone call from you. You sent me investigative reports about the 1987 rape and attempted rape. You sent me a psychiatric report. And you sent me transcripts of investigator Hobson’s interviews and a videotape of the interviews.”
“And that was all reviewed?”
“One of my employees, James Wright, a retired FBI agent, summarized the documents for me originally.”
“Then the next involvement started when I called you and told you the defense had retained Dr. Fred Berlin, is that correct?”
“Yes. At that point I requested an examination of the defendant,because it appeared that the defense was going to assert a mental issue, put the defendant’s mental state at issue. So I asked you to arrange for an exam. I wanted both a psychiatricinterview and psychological testing.”
“You actually traveled up here to Monterey in an attempt to interview the defendant, did you not?”
“Yes, I did.”
“Do you remember when that was, approximately?”
“Around April fourth of this year.”
“Did you perform an examination on the defendant, Rex Allan Krebs?”
“ No.”
“Why is that?”
“Because he refused to be examined.”
“Based on your background, your training, your experience over the years, the review of the evidence in this case, do you believe that you can render an opinion as to what role the defendant’s mental state may or may not have played in the commission of the crimes and criminal activity in his life?”
“Yes, I do.”
“Do you believe the defendant suffers from any type of disorder?”
“Yes, I do.”
“More than one?”
“Yes. Dr. Berlin diagnosed two disorders and mentioned another that he considered, and I agree with him on sexual sadism. I accept that the defendant may have alcoholism. But I come down on the other side from Dr. Berlin on the questionof antisocial personality disorder.”
“I think Dr. Berlin said that antisocial personality disorderwas ‘just a bunch of words used by doctors to describe bad behavior.’
“It’s actually a specific diagnosis, isn’t it?”
Dr. Dietz began by describing the origin of the concept behindantisocial personality. He informed the jury that it had evolved from earlier medical concepts starting with the “moral imbecile,” which was then replaced by “psychopath.” The term “psychopath” referred to individuals who acted without conscience and exhibit poor or no moral judgment. He then described how Hollywood bastardized the term and turned it into a monster. As a result, the medical profession opted to coin a new phrase: “sociopath,” to reflect individualswho behave in antisocial ways. The term was used for a number of years, and then slowly it was replaced by the phrase “antisocial personality disorder.”
The doctor explained what the criteria are to determine if a person possesses an antisocial personality disorder.
“There really are four issues. First, the individual must be at least eighteen years old.
“Second, we have to make sure that the antisocial behavior is not due to schizophrenia or mania.
“We also are required to find that there is evidence of a conduct disorder that began before the individual was fifteen years old.
“And lastly, we have to find that the individual has had three or more kinds of antisocial behavior since age fifteen.
“Now, in the case of Mr. Krebs, he had been [over] eighteenyears old at the time of these offenses. So the first criterion is met.
“Dr. Berlin testified that Mr. Krebs does not have any psychoticmental illness. He doesn’t have schizophrenia. He does not have mania. So the second point is met as well.”
Concerning conduct disorder before the age of fifteen, Dr. Dietz stated that “one of the criteria for a conduct disorder is that the individual often bullies, threatens, or intimidates others.There was testimony by the private investigator that he did intimidate other children at school.
“A second thing is whether someone has broken into someone’shouse, building, or car. The incident with the knife and the ski mask is an example of that.
“The third would be often lies to obtain goods or favors, or to avoid obligation. Mr. Krebs was sent to a psychologist becauseof his lying and stealing when he was eleven or twelve years old.
“These are examples of behaviors before he was fifteen. When we look at antisocial behavior since age fifteen, he has examples of antisocial behavior in at least four different categories.
“The first of those categories is repeatedly performing acts that are grounds for arrest. Examples that Mr. Krebs has engagedin were the burglary of the house in 1981 when he took the twenty-two-caliber revolver.
“His possession of marijuana.
“His derailing the motor car on the train track.
“His assault on Jenny Everwood in 1984.
“His burglary of a garaged car in 1984.
“His rape of Shelly Crosby in 1987.
“His attempted rape of Anishka Constantine in 1987.
“The abduction, rape, and murder of Rachel Newhouse in 1998.
“The abduction, rape, and murder of Aundria Crawford in 1999.
“Those are all acts that are grounds for arrest.”
Dr. Dietz continued with his list of antisocial behaviors. “The second kind of antisocial behavior is deceitfulness, as indicated by repeated lying, use of aliases, or conning others for personal profit or pleasure.
“Examples that Mr. Krebs has shown of deceitfulness includehis lying to the police about the burglary in 1981.
“His problem with lying at the North Idaho Children’s Home from 1981 to ’83.
“His lying to the police about the car theft in 1984.
“Dishonesty, which was described in the records of the North Idaho Correctional Institution from 1984 to 1986.
“He lied to the police about the rape and attempted rape in 1987.
“When he was first interviewed by Investigator Hobson about the present charges, he lied about killing Ms. Newhouseor Ms. Crawford.
“He lied about ever having met them, saying he never met either woman.
“He was asked if he knew where they had been taken from and he lied about that.
“He was asked about the eight ball and lied about where that had come from.
“The jump seat. He lied about that too.
“And then, even after he admitted the murders in subsequent interviews, he still lied. He lied about why he confessed. He lied about the thirty-five-millimeter camera.
“The third kind of antisocial behavior is irritability and aggressivenessas indicated by repeated physical fights or assaults. Examples of that are the assault on Jenny Everwood in 1984. The fights at the North Idaho Correctional Institutionin 1984 and 1985.

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