Dead And Buried (36 page)
Authors: Corey Mitchell
“His assault on Shelly Crosby in 1987.
“His assault on Anishka Constantine in 1987.
“His assault on Rachel Newhouse in 1998.
“And his assault on Aundria Crawford in 1999.
“That is more than enough adequate evidence to indicate that Rex Krebs has shown irritability and aggressiveness through repeated fighting or assaults.
“The fourth category is reckless disregard for safety of self or others. Four examples of that are that after injuring the man in the car derailment, he was told that the man could have been killed, and his response was ‘So what?’
“Mr. Krebs claims that he was driving drunk while he had Rachel Newhouse tied up and captive. He claims that he left Rachel Newhouse alone with a rope tied around her neck. He claims that he was driving drunk with Aundria Crawford. Recklessly disregarding safety.
“So taking all of that together, he’s over eighteen. He doesn’t have the serious mental illnesses. He has evidence of a conduct disorder before fifteen, and he has at least four of the criteria of antisocial personality disorder since age fifteen,that indicates that he meets the
DSM-IV
criteria for antisocial personality disorder.”
DSM-IV
criteria for antisocial personality disorder.”
Trice asked the doctor, “Now, Dr. Berlin expressed a different opinion, and you disagree with him, why? Just because the criteria are met?”
“Yes. He meets the criteria; therefore, he has it.”
Trice approached the subject of sexual sadism with Dr. Dietz. “There’s a second disorder that you’ve diagnosed, is that correct?”
“Yes. That would be sexual sadism.”
“Dr. Berlin spent a lot of time talking about fantasies. What are fantasies?”
“Fantasies are voluntarily invoked mental imaginations. And I agree entirely with Dr. Berlin when he says that people do not choose their sexual deviations. They do not choose to become a sexual sadist. Or to become a pedophile. They discoverthat they have these disorders.
“Nobody chooses which things turn them on and arouse them. But when an individual’s favorite masturbation fantasy is of a sadistic act, such as tying someone up, when they have that fantasy, they are not experiencing that any differently from someone normal who has a fantasy about being with an attractive person of the opposite sex who’s naked. It’s equally arousing. It is equally pleasant. It’s equally used for the purposeof sexual arousal.
“For the sexual sadist in particular, there’s a variety of things that fit in the category of what is arousing to a sexual sadist. Bondage, which usually means tying someone up with leather restraints, or chains, or ropes, or duct tape, or any other material. We also make a distinction between motor and sensory bondage. Motor bondage is the tying up where someonecan’t move. Sensory bondage is impairing their senses by blindfolding, putting earmuffs on them, or putting them in a dark space such as a coffin or a cage in the dark.
“Captivity is another common theme. Having someone captive who is available for sexual use.
“Dominating someone. Many focus on humiliation. And the humiliation can be making someone do embarrassing things in public. Or by humiliating her by calling her abusive names in front of her children, or her family, or her friends. Or it can be a ritual form of humiliation like smearing food on her body while she’s tied up.
“Spanking and whipping. Flagellism. Beating is a common theme with sexual sadists.
“Choking and strangulation are very common themes in sexual sadism. And cutting, burning, and torture.
“Mr. Krebs has said that he prefers bondage, and captivity, and domination, and he’s denied that he prefers beating, and strangulation, and torture. His behaviors have included bondage, and captivity, and domination, but they have also includedbeating and strangulation.”
“Can you explain this disorder, this sexual sadism?”
“Sexual sadists discover this about themselves, typically by puberty. This condition has existed for at least two hundred years, and one would think a lot longer than that.
“Throughout history there’s been examples of individuals who have committed horrible crimes in the service of this particular disorder. Caligula, for example, in Ancient Rome, was a sexual sadist. But we do not really know what the causes are. We do know that people who have this disorder vary tremendously in how they cope with it. Some people confine themselves entirely to fantasy and masturbation. Some of them use a defense mechanism called sublimation, in which they will actually find a way to do pro-social things through this interest. They could become a scholar of sexual sadism, or write a biography on the Marquis de Sade.
“A second kind are those who have consenting partners. Many individuals find someone who will consent to the simulationof sadistic acts. Will consent to spanking. Will consent to tying up. And will allow the sadistic partner to enjoy those activitiesin a way that are not harmful to the consenting partner.
“Many use pornography. And there is a large volume of pornography devoted to this. Something like twenty percent of the imagery was sexually sadistic imagery.
“There are also bondage and domination services available. In some of the larger cities, there are clubs specifically devoted to this. Prostitutes too include some who will act the submissiveor the slave for a fee.
“Some people engage in nonviolent crimes through sexual sadism.” Dr. Dietz described a case he worked on for the FBI in which a man placed threatening notes on women’s cars at shopping malls. The man videotaped the women’s reactions as they read the more disturbing sections in which he bound and gagged them with a knife to their throats.
“And then some sexual sadists commit violent crimes in order to fulfill their desires. That’s just a tiny group of the sexualsadists that ever get to that point. That’s the group that I have studied the most, and the group that, of course, causes the most harm.”
“Having made this diagnosis,” prodded Trice, “what evidencein this case do you think supports this diagnosis?”
“The self-reported sexual fantasies,” responded Dr. Dietz, “in which Mr. Krebs talks about having from age twelve or thirteen. Rape fantasies.
“The assault on Jenny Everwood, which was a sexual assault,involved both beating and manual strangulation. And I think that is evidence of his sexual sadism.
“The Shelly Crosby rape is another example that involved bondage, the attempt to gag and blindfold, cutting the clothing,attempted anal penetration and vaginal penetration. All of that is consistent with the behavior of a sexual sadist committinga violent crime.
“The Anishka Constantine attempted rape also is consistentwith a sexual sadist committing a violent crime. He brought binding materials with him. He attempted to bind her, but she grabbed his knife and got the better of him.
“And, of course, both of the homicides. Rachel Newhouse—the defendant admitted that he beat her. He abducted her. He gagged her. He kept her captive. He bound her in a variety of positions.
“In the Aundria Crawford homicide, the defendant admitted that he beat her. He abducted her. He gagged her. He blindfolded her. He kept her captive. He bound her too in a variety of positions. He cut her clothing, and he raped her both vaginally and anally. He has admitted to many varieties of behavior that are consistent with sexual sadism.”
Both Dr. Dietz and Dr. Berlin agreed that Rex Krebs was a sexual sadist. Trice’s job now was to draw out of Dr. Dietz the impact of sexual sadism on Krebs’s criminal behavior.
“But you disagree with the nature and effects of sexual sadism, is that correct?”
“Yes, it is. First of all, I don’t consider sexual sadism as a mental disease. There are many, many disorders, ranging from not serious to very serious. Only a few of all the things in the
DSM
deserve to be called mental diseases. Those are the conditions that cause a human being to have a perception of reality that is fundamentally different from what any other person can ever experience.
DSM
deserve to be called mental diseases. Those are the conditions that cause a human being to have a perception of reality that is fundamentally different from what any other person can ever experience.
“There are a number of conditions that can do that. Sexual sadism isn’t one of them. Someone whose only problem is sexual sadism has only one fundamental difference from normalpeople and that is a difference in what excites them sexually. It doesn’t affect how they think. It doesn’t affect their emotions. It doesn’t affect their ability to control themselves.It only affects what it is that turns them on sexually.
“I believe they can control what they do with their sexual desires just like other people do.”
“This concept of the ‘policeman at the elbow’ rule, are you familiar with that phrase?”
“I am. That’s a term borrowed from a test for whether someone’snot responsible for their behavior. Would the defendant have committed this crime had there been a policeman at his elbow at the moment? The answer in this case is most certainly that had there been a policeman at his elbow, he certainly would not have committed these crimes. He even looked around for witnesses when he was on the bridge with the skull mask beforehe abducted Rachel Newhouse. If there had been any witnesses there, he wouldn’t have done it. If there had been a policeman there, he wouldn’t have done it.
“He was fully aware that this was wrong behavior and capableof stopping it with those kinds of external controls.”
Dr. Dietz also acknowledged to the court that he agreed with Dr. Berlin’s assessment as to Rex Krebs’s potential alcoholism.
Trice asked the doctor whether he believed psychotherapy could have cured Rex Krebs’s antisocial personality.
“I think anyone in the mental professions,” Dr. Dietz informedthe court, “would say if somebody has the kind of risk factors he was addressing, that psychotherapy is a good thing to offer. It’s almost a platitude to say and to offer it.
“The question becomes if somebody has developed an antisocialpersonality disorder, which they have by the time they’re eighteen, what impact can psychotherapy have on that disorder? Unfortunately, despite a hundred years of efforts to find some psychotherapy that would help such people and make a difference in their crime rates, nothing whatsoever works. The recidivism is the same for people who have receivedthe treatment and people who haven’t.
“It’s one of the great disappointments of modern psychiatrythat we do not know how to change the antisocial behavior of people with antisocial personality disorder. The only thing that cuts down their rate of offenses is incarceration.”
“Dr. Berlin talked about the sexual sadism and the fantasiesalmost becoming a compulsion,” stated Trice. “Is that opinion widely held in your field?”
“No, it isn’t. The difference between Krebs as someone who does such things when he’s cruising, drinking, and finds a proper victim and many other sexual sadists, who don’t do those things, is the difference between a person of good character,and morals, and conscience, and a person with an antisocial personality who does not have good character, and conscience, and morals, but who behaves aggressively and deceitfully.”
“I’d like to ask you whether the offenses were committed while the defendant was under the influence of extreme mentalor emotional disturbance?”
“I believe that these offenses were not committed while he was under the influence of extreme mental or emotional disturbance.Antisocial personality disorder is certainly not an example of extreme mental or emotional disturbance. It’s an example of a maladaptive pattern of social relationships.
“Sexual sadism is not an example of extreme mental or emotional disturbance; it’s an example of a perversion, a sexualdeviation which is not about the emotions or mental disturbance. It’s about sexual desire.”
“The other question Mr. McLennan asked Dr. Berlin was whether the defendant acted under extreme duress. Do you have an opinion on that?”
“I think Rachel Newhouse was acting under duress and AundriaCrawford was acting under duress, but not Mr. Krebs.”
Trice asked Dr. Dietz whether Krebs could appreciate the criminality of his conduct at the time of the murders.
“First of all, I don’t think that the conditions that anyone has described Mr. Krebs as having are a mental disease or defect.But even if he did, I think we have evidence that his volitional control was there, that is, that he did have the capacityto conform his conduct to the requirements of the law.
“His decision to drink was a decision to put other people at risk. Because he knows how he behaves when he drinks. When he decided to cruise, that’s a decision to put other peopleat risk. His decision to carry a rape kit with him was a decision to prepare for sadistic sexual assault. Those are reflectiveof choices to put himself in a position where he will find himself behaving in the way he’s always wanted to and where other people are at risk.
“His decision to stop resisting, to stop trying to conform his conduct, is a choice, a bad choice he made, rather than his not having the ability to control himself.”
“No further questions,” Trice directed toward Judge LaBarbera.
FIFTY-EIGHT
May 7, 2001
Superior Court Room 16, Monterey, California
2:00
P.M.
Superior Court Room 16, Monterey, California
2:00
P.M.
John Trice was ready for the closing argument of the sentencingphase for Rex Krebs. He approached the attentive jury.
“We are now at the last step in the criminal-justice system, where the people, the jury, will decide what is the appropriatepunishment for this defendant for the slaughter of Rachel and Aundria.
“You have been immersed in this terrible story. You too will never forget this. You realize now you have been in the presenceof one of the most cruel, calculating, and brutal individuals on the planet, Rex Allan Krebs.
“You will decide if we did what I said we would do: prove the horrific facts of these cases and his brutal and extensive criminal background substantially outweighs the pathetic blame-game defense that has been thrown at you in the past two or three weeks.
“I don’t want to finish my work on this case after two years talking about the defendant and his mitigation. I want to finishmy work on this case talking to you about what should be the focus here. The focus here should be Rachel. It should be Aundria. It should be their families, and it should be his monstrous mentality.”
Trice’s argument focused the jury’s attention on the crimes perpetrated on the victims by Krebs. He did not want them to fall under the spell of “poor pitiful Rex” and the horrible treatment he received throughout his youth. He informed the jury that sympathy for the family of the defendant is not a mitigating factor for them to entertain. And he informed the jury that Allan Krebs was a bad father.
“But the story the defense wants you to believe is that becauseof that you should feel sorry for Rex Krebs. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is where the leap is. This thirty-five-year-oldrapist who brutalized these two coeds in San Luis Obispo, he deserves nothing from you.”
Trice went on to chastise the defense’s expert witness, Dr. Fred Berlin. The attorney spat out in disbelief of Dr. Berlin’s “ridiculous concept of sexual compulsion.” Trice sarcastically stated, “He has evil thoughts, so he has to brutalize a twelve-year-oldgirl in Sandpoint, Idaho, in 1984? He has to brutalize a woman named Shelly, who’s asleep in her bed? He has to brutalize Anishka, who’s sleeping in her home with her seven-year-old daughter. He just has to kidnap two coeds in San Luis Obispo, rape, and strangle them to death.
“That’s the defense. He has bad thoughts. He just can’t help himself.” Trice’s disgust was evident to everyone in the warm courtroom.
“The defense will say, ‘But he confessed.’ The defense may say Rex brought closure to Montel and Phillip and Gail. But Rex Krebs only told us what he wanted us to hear after he was confronted with the blood evidence.”
Trice wanted to make sure that during all of the defendant character testimony the two reasons the jury was there would not be forgotten. “Just as the defense attorneys want to humanizeRex Krebs, so it is proper for us to humanize those he killed. It’s important because sometimes in our criminal-justicesystem there are flaws. And sometimes we forget the victims. And it shouldn’t be that way.
“Someone with much more insight than I once said: ‘When one person kills another, there is immediate revulsion at the nature of the crime. But in a time so short as to seem indecent to the members of the person’s family, the dead person ceases to exist as an identifiable figure.
“ ‘To those individuals in the community of goodwill and empathy, warmth and compassion, only one of the key actors in the drama remains with whom to commiserate, and that is always the criminal. The dead person ceases to be a part of everyday reality, ceases to exist. She is only a figure in a historicalevent.
“ ‘We inevitably turn away from the past toward the ongoingreality. And the ongoing reality is the criminal. Trapped, anxious, now helpless, isolated, often badgered and bewildered,he usurps the compassion that is justly his victim’s due. He will steal his victim’s moral constituency along with her life.’
“So that’s why you got to know a little bit about the girls.”
Trice prepared to conclude this all-important facet of the trial. He approached the jury. “Justice, ladies and gentlemen,is not served until the citizens of our community are as outraged by what Rex Krebs did as the families of the victims.Rachel and Aundria were not taken by an act of God, but by an act of that man,” he firmly stated as he pointed toward Krebs, who did not look at Trice or the jury.
“It is now appropriate that justice be administered by an act of man, by our government, by our criminal-justice system, by this court, by you, the jury. The death penalty is supported by the evidence in this case. It is the only appropriate judgmentfor him.
“Thank you.”
Trice nodded his head toward the jurors and silently turned around. He headed toward his seat. The courtroom sat completelystill.
Only Judge LaBarbera’s mention of lunch recess broke the reverie.
The defense, just as Trice predicted, focused not on the victims, but instead on the mitigating factors in Rex Krebs’s life that possibly drove him to kill the two girls. Both attorneys spoke before the jury. A weary but determined James Maguire III began the defense’s closing arguments. The attorney spoke of the various “risk factors” in Rex Krebs’s life. He alluded to the things that Trice mentioned, that Krebs chose. Now he wanted to talk about something uniquely different.
“I’m going to talk about the things that he didn’t choose. Let me start with his parents. Rex didn’t choose to be born to Allan Krebs, a man with a reputation for brutality. He didn’t choose to be born to Connie Krebs, an alcoholic woman who cared more about having a man in her life than she did about her son’s well-being.”
Maguire moved on to the various risk factors. He mentionedpoverty, constant moving around, instability within the family structure, neglect, and verbal, emotional, and physical abuse.
“I’m saying to you,” Maguire stated firmly, addressing the jury, “that each of these is also a factor in mitigation. They are an explanation. They’re not an excuse. They are an explanationfor why Rex Krebs is in this courtroom today. They are the forces that form the person that Rex Krebs became, and they damaged him in a major way. By damage, I mean mentalillness.
“You know,” Maguire continued, “if you were to describe to someone who hasn’t been present at this trial the criminal conduct that Rex Krebs has engaged in here—conduct that he’s admitted to—a person listening to this account would say, ‘This is sick. This is a sick person.’ And, of course, he is. He is sick. This conduct is so abnormal that we know intuitivelythat a person who does this has to be sick, has got to be mentally ill in some form.”
Maguire went on to make the point that Krebs often sought help, but never received it. He also spoke of how every time Krebs seemed to get better, he would end up back with his father and eventually would get in trouble again.
Maguire also compared the expert witnesses, Dr. Fred Berlin and Dr. Park Dietz. Naturally, he was less kind to the latter. “Dr. Dietz seems to be some sort of professional witnesswho doesn’t treat people anymore. He hasn’t since the early ’80s. He just goes around making lots of money testifyingin cases.” Maguire mentioned that both Berlin and Dietz agreed that Krebs suffered from sexual sadism, that it is an uninvited illness, and that there are treatments to prevent it from reoccurring.
Maguire also castigated Dr. Dietz about his testimony of Krebs’s bad acts that proved the defendant suffered from antisocialpersonality disorder. Specifically, when Krebs drove Rachel home while intoxicated and endangered other people’s lives.
“It didn’t seem to make any sense to me,” Maguire quizzicallystated of Dietz’s testimony. “Frankly, five hundred dollars an hour, I expected a little tighter presentation.”
Maguire wound up his closing by stressing the option for treatment for Krebs. “It doesn’t matter whose fault it was that Rex Krebs didn’t get the treatment that he needed. It does matter that it’s available to him now. There is an antidote now. This means that his dangerousness, his evil side, can be taken away.
“There is no need to kill him. So if he is sentenced to life in prison, the evil Rex Krebs can be eliminated without destroyingthe good Rex Krebs.”
Maguire concluded with one last plea for his client’s life: “It was the good in him that made him offer himself up to your judgment. So now I ask on his behalf that you allow the good in him to live, that you break the cycle of violence, that you vote for the good. Life without the possibility of parole is a sentence that will punish him, that will protect society and is the appropriate sentence in this case. Thank you.”
Judge LaBarbera gave everyone a breather. There was still one more closing argument remaining.
Upon return from a twenty-minute recess, defense attorney Patricia Ashbaugh approached the jury one last time. Her job was to remind them of the job they had to do, that they could not let their emotions cloud their judgment.
It would be a tough job. They had to decide whether to send a man to his death.
“Vengeance can sometimes be like a seductive, elicit lover. It will take you in. It will make you feel good for the moment, but then it vanishes. Vengeance is destructive. It destroys good people and it can destroy good people like you. Vengeance will not bring back Rachel Newhouse. Vengeance will not bring back Aundria Crawford. Do not embrace it.”
Ashbaugh then appealed to the jurors’ conscience.
“Whatever decision you do make, you will have to live with (it) for the rest of your life. You will think about it over and over and over, not just next week, not just next month, not just next year, but perhaps your entire lifetime. Because if you vote for death, there will be some executioner who will put poison into the veins of my client, Rex Krebs, because you have ordered it, and he will die.”
Ashbaugh then appealed to the jurors’ sensibility that a life sentence behind bars would be a just punishment.
“I suggest a conclusion that you could reach is that Rex Krebs will not hurt or be a problem for anyone if you render a verdict of life without possibility of parole. Life will not be glamorous for him. He will not get to see his son grow up, attendhis graduation or his wedding. He will not see the ocean again. He will not feel the sand beneath his feet. He will not walk in the mountains. And he will not walk among us. He will have to live with himself and what he has done.
“I really don’t know what else to say. But this I will say to you. Life is nothing to fear. Life is nothing to be ashamed of. Life is what I am asking from you. Thank you.”
The defense rested.
Rex Krebs’s life lay in the hands of twelve fellow Californians.
After four long days of deliberation, on the evening of May 11, 2001, the jurors sent word to Judge LaBarbera that they had reached an agreement on a sentence for Rex Krebs. The judge summoned both parties to the courtroom. The judge also sent for the jurors.
The time was 6:50
P.M.
P.M.
“The jury is present.” The judge signaled the room. “I understandyou’ve reached a verdict?”
“Yes, we have,” replied one of the jurors, who handed a sheet of paper to the bailiff, who, in turn, handed it to the judge.
Judge LaBarbera read the sentence and handed the paper to the clerk: “The defendant will please stand, and the clerk will read the verdicts.”
The clerk did as instructed.
“Superior Court of California, County of San Luis Obispo.
The People of the State of California, Plaintiff,
versus
Rex Allan Krebs, Defendant,
verdict of jury, penalty.
The People of the State of California, Plaintiff,
versus
Rex Allan Krebs, Defendant,
verdict of jury, penalty.
“Count one, Penal Code Section 187, murder of Rachel Lindsay Newhouse. We, the jury, having convicted the defendant,Rex Allan Krebs, of the first-degree murder of Rachel Lindsay Newhouse and having found true the special circumstancespertaining to her murder, now fix the penalty at death.”
Once again the pressure cooker released in the courtroom. Sighs, cries, and winces rose above the fray.
The clerk continued to read the sentence.
“Superior Court of California, County of San Luis Obispo.
The People of the State of California, Plaintiff,
versus
Rex Allan Krebs, Defendant,
verdict of jury, penalty.
The People of the State of California, Plaintiff,
versus
Rex Allan Krebs, Defendant,
verdict of jury, penalty.
“Count two, Penal Code Section 187, murder of Aundria Lynn Crawford. We, the jury, having convicted the defendant, Rex Allan Krebs, of the first-degree murder of Aundria Lynn Crawford and having found true the special circumstances pertaining to her murder, now fix the penalty at death.”
Judge LaBarbera took control of the room. “All right. You may be seated. Ladies and gentlemen, the verdicts at this time complete your service.” The judge complimented the jury for their impeccable behavior.
Judge LaBarbera then sent through an order to have the prisoner transferred to the San Luis Obispo Jail.
Rex Krebs still had one more court appearance.
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