Sentencing Delay Refused for Rockefeller Imposter Convicted in 1985 San Marino Killing

By City News Service

A judge denied a request Tuesday to postpone next month's sentencing date for a con man who once passed himself off as a member of the wealthy Rockefeller family and was convicted of murdering a San Marino man 28 years ago and burying the remains in the victim's backyard.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge George G. Lomeli told Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter -- who has been acting as his own attorney for just over a month -- that his sentencing would go forward as scheduled Aug. 15.

"You want to go through the (trial) transcript with a fine-tooth comb," the judge told Gerhartsreiter. "You can't look through this whole transcript to find something."

The 52-year-old defendant -- who was convicted April 10 of the February 1985 slaying of John Sohus -- told the judge, "The theory is that the evidence is insufficient to support the verdict."

After being allowed to speak from a courtroom lockup by phone with one of his former attorneys, Gerhartsreiter told the judge, "For the 15th, I think everything should be on course."

Gerharsreiter is facing 27 years to life in state prison.     Along with first-degree murder, jurors found true allegations that Gerhartsreiter used blunt and sharp objects in the killing.

Gerhartsreiter -- who has claimed to be a Rockefeller, an English nobleman and a Hollywood producer and who was known as Christopher Chichester at the time of Sohus' death -- lived in a guest house on the Sohus property at 1920 Lorain Road.

Sohus' buried remains were uncovered there in May 1994 by an excavation crew preparing to build a swimming pool on the property for a new owner.

Gerhartsreiter was not charged in connection with the disappearance of Sohus' wife, Linda, who vanished at about the same time.

Defense attorneys argued during the trial that Linda Sohus may have been responsible for her husband's death, but Deputy District Attorney Habib Balian claimed evidence points to the defendant as having killed her, as well.