Crime & Safety

Lawyers Push For New 'Rockefeller' Trial

An 'inexperienced' psychologist and media coverage may have influenced jurors, the lawyer for the man charged with San Marino murder, Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter – a.k.a. Clark Rockefeller - argued.

When Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter – a.k.a. Clark Rockefeller – was convicted of kidnapping his 7-year-old daughter during a supervised visit in Back Bay, Massachusetts in 2009, jurors heard mental health testimony from an “inexperienced” psychologist, and may have been influenced by media coverage before and during the trial, defense attorney Jeffrey Denner argued Friday morning at John Adams Courthouse in Boston.

Gerhartsreiter is currently serving his sentence in a Los Angeles County jail since he was . The bones of Sohus were found in 1994 in the backyard of the Lorain Road home where John lived and Gerhartsreiter rented a guesthouse in the 1980s but were not officially linked to Gerhartsreiter, who went by "Christopher Chichester" in San Marino, until last year. John's wife Linda, who also went missing around that time, has never been found.

Denner is now pushing for a new kidnapping trial. While the prosecution maintained that the expert doctor they presented was legally qualified, Denner countered that he couldn’t provide a definition of mental illness under Massachusetts law.

Find out what's happening in San Marinowith free, real-time updates from Patch.

“His diagnosis was a mixed personality disorder, which doesn’t exist” Denner said.

He also said newspaper articles and T.V. reports about Gerhartsreiter – from his many identities to his involvement in the disappearance of the San Marino Sohus couple  – may have influenced the jurors. Denner admitted, however, that the jurors all swore they didn’t seek out any media coverage, and said he regretted not pushing the issue further.

Find out what's happening in San Marinowith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Gerhartsreiter was sentenced to about four years in prison for the assault and kidnapping, and is nearing the end of that sentence. 

What do you think of the attorneys for "Rockefeller" asking for a new kidnapping trial years after the verdict?

Jessica Hamlin contributed to this article.


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

To request removal of your name from an arrest report, submit these required items to arrestreports@patch.com.