Jury Recommends Death for Cooper in Chino Hills Murders

SAN DIEGO —  The jury that convicted mass murderer Kevin Cooper recommended Friday that he be put to death in California’s gas chamber.

The jury deliberated 3 1/2 days before returning the death verdict against the 27-year-old prison escapee, who was convicted last week on four counts of first-degree murder. Jury foreman Frank Nugent, a secretary for a local church, said that jurors agonized over the verdict and indicated that several votes were taken before jurors agreed on a death sentence.

“We went through a lot of soul-searching and revealed our hearts to each other,” Nugent said. “But once we decided, the verdict was unanimous.”

San Bernardino County public defender David Negus said jurors told him they took 15 votes before deciding on the gas chamber. The jury had the option of recommending that Cooper be sentenced to death or to life in prison without possibility of parole.

Superior Court Judge Richard C. Garner set sentencing for May 15.

Nugent declined to reveal anything more about the penalty phase deliberations except to say that it was an emotionally draining experience for the jury. The other jurors walked out of the courtroom without talking to reporters.

“What we discussed and whatever disagreements we may have had, we decided, are very confidential. Those things are to remain with us,” Nugent said.

Cooper was convicted for the brutal June, 1983, murders of four people in a Chino Hills home. The hacked and stabbed bodies of Doug and Peg Ryen, both 41; their daughter, Jessica, 10, and a neighbor, Christopher Hughes, 11, were discovered on June 5, 1983, in the Ryen home three days after Cooper escaped from the Chino Institution for Men.

Cooper was also convicted of attempted murder of 9-year-old Joshua Ryen, who survived a slashed throat and blows to the head. The Ryens were Santa Ana chiropractors.

The multiple murders and the jury’s finding that Cooper inflicted great bodily harm on Joshua qualified Cooper for the death penalty.

Cooper, who dressed in a suit during the trial, made Friday’s court appearance dressed in a jail shirt and dungarees. He sat expressionless as the court clerk read the verdict. Security was heavy in the courtroom, and two burly bailiffs stood behind and in front of Cooper guarding against a possible escape attempt.

After the verdict, bailiffs ushered the press and spectators out of the courtroom while defense and prosecuting attorneys discussed the verdict with jurors.

Negus said jurors expressed criticism of the Sheriff Department’s investigation of the murders and told him “that a lot of pieces of the puzzle are missing.”

Says Only One Vote Taken

Nugent disputed that claim and said jurors took only one vote to find Cooper guilty of the murders and attempted murder.

San Bernardino County Dist. Atty. Dennis Kottmeier said that he had anticipated a death penalty recommendation but that he doubts that Cooper will be executed. The prosecutor criticized the California Supreme Court for blocking executions in the state.

The last execution in California took place in 1967. Since the state’s death penalty was restored in 1977, the California Supreme Court has overturned 29 of 32 death sentences. Three have been affirmed and are making their way through the appeal process at the federal level.

The jurors notified Garner at 11:40 a.m. that they had reached a decision. Before asking for the verdict, Garner indicated that there may have been serious disagreements among the jurors during the penalty phase.

“Those of you who had a disagreement with your fellow jurors . . . please don’t take that personally,” Garner said. “Reasonable minds can differ. I know you’ve gone through agonizing and difficult times. It’s been a tough case.”

Cooper’s trial was moved here because of extensive pretrial publicity in San Bernardino County. He was serving a three-year term at the California Institution for Men at Chino when he walked away from the prison’s minimum-security wing on June 2, 1983, after an error in his paper work.

In October, 1982, Cooper escaped from a mental hospital in his native Pennsylvania. He was sent there after a judge found him incompetent to aid in his own defense on a burglary charge. After making his escape in Pennsylvania, Cooper allegedly burglarized a nearby home, abducted a young woman and drove her to a park in Pittsburgh, Pa., where he allegedly threatened her with a screwdriver and raped her, Pennsylvania authorities said.

Pennsylvania authorities had begun submitting extradition papers for Cooper when he escaped from the Chino prison. He was captured on July 30, 1983, on an island 20 miles south of Santa Barbara and arrested on charges of rape, unlawful sodomy, forcible oral copulation and assault with a deadly weapon. Those charges were not connected to the Chino Hills killings.