#Rockefeller Hearing: Defendant Gave Victim’s Truck to Witness

Testimony in the preliminary hearing for accused murderer Christian Karl Gehartsreiter Monday centered on a truck the man tried to give away.

The man was known in San Marino as Christopher Chichester and allegedly told witnesses he was of royal descent, called himself Christopher Crowe when he arrived in Greenwich, CT, in the late 1980s and acquainted himself with Reverend John Bishop, a priest at a Greenwich church where Crowe wanted to be a parishioner to get to know people.

The Reverend’s son, Christopher Bishop—an Episcopal priest since 2007—testified Monday morning that his now-deceased father introduced him to Crowe since Bishop was attending film school at Columbia University at the time and Crowe claimed to work in the film industry.

“He told me he was the brother of Cameron Crowe, who is a writer and director,” Bishop said. “I had no reason to doubt it.”

Bishop said Crowe also told him he was in Connecticut to produce the television series Alfred Hitchcock Presents and showed him an episode of the show before it aired, which Bishop saw as proof that Crowe was an industry insider.

When asked if he saw Chris Crowe in the courtroom Monday, Bishop said with certainty, “Yes,” and identified the defendant, who was wearing a blue prison jumpsuit.

He later remembered that Crowe’s full name was Christopher Chichester Crowe and he had ‘CCC’ monogrammed on items.

Crowe Gave Away Murder Victim’s Truck

At one point during their friendship, even though Bishop expressed no interest in needing a car, Crowe asked if Bishop wanted a white pick-up truck that Crowe had used in a production.

Crowe didn’t want any money for the truck, and all Bishop had to do was contact the California Department of Motor Vehicles and get the registration, Bishop testified.

After his father wrote a check to the DMV—dated July 1, 1988, as a copy displayed Monday showed—Bishop discovered the truck had a lien on it and money was owed on the truck.

Bishop got another, cheaper truck and until he could figure out what to do with the Crowe’s truck, he took the plates off the recently purchased truck and put them onto the Nissan white pick-up.

“I was a grad student and I was broke,” said Bishop. “I thought having a pickup for production was a great idea. I did something that was illegal; I’m not proud of that.”

After driving the truck around for a few weeks and Crowe not wanting to take the truck back, Bishop took the license plates off the truck and dumped it a train station.

“Again, not a great idea,” said Bishop, who noted he would not take the same action today.

Later, a Connecticut detective visited Bishop and his parents at their Connecticut home in the 1980s and said the truck was involved in a missing person’s investigation—specifically, that of John and Linda Sohus of San Marino.

While Bishop told the detective he knew Crowe, he didn’t mention anything about the dumped truck at the time, fearing it would embarrass or endanger him or his family.

“I didn’t know, maybe this person (Crowe) would come after me so I washed my hands of it,” said Bishop. “It was a bad move but that’s what I did.”

Bishop called Crowe in a rage and asked who the [heck] he was, telling him of the detective and a missing persons case in connection with Crowe’s truck.

“Gotta go, bye,” Crowe immediately said over the phone.

Bishop never heard from Crowe again.

 Check back on Patch and follow us on twitter @SanMarinoPatch for updates.