Santa Cruz Sentinel from Santa Cruz, California • Page 32

32 Santa Cruz Sentinel 1 1 A M.pi'iiyiHwy inmiinm in i vk i Stankewitz Death Penalty Verdict FRESNO (AP) In the first death penalty verdict here in 17 years, a Clovis man has been sentenced to the gas chamber for killing a Modesto woman. Douglas Ft. Stankewitz, 20, received a death penalty ruling after an all-male jury deliberated less than 2Vz hours Wednesday. The same Superior Court jury previously found Stankewitz guilty of kidnapping, robbery and first-degree murder in the Feb. 8 shooting death of Theresa Graybeal, 22, of Modesto.

Stankewitz, handuffed because of an escape during the trial, told a guard escorting him back to jail after the verdict: "Well, they got me." This was the Fresno County trial in which the death penalty was ordered since 1961. The defendant in that case, James Abner Bentley, 27, was convicted of murdering a liquor store operator and was executed two years later, the next to last person to receive the death penalty in California. The state's last execution occurred in 1967. Judge Robert L. Martin could reduce Stankewitz' sentence to life in prison without possibility of parole if he determines that the death sentence was unjustified.

Martin will formally pronounce sentence Oct. 12 after reviewing the case. A 15-year-old witness testified during the trial that Mrs. Graybeal was kidnapped from a Modesto shopping center because Stankewitz and four others wanted to use her car to return to Fresno. Their car had been impounded by Manteca police.

The witness also testified that Stankewitz shot Mrs. Graybeal at point-blank range, then bragged: "Did I drop her or did I drop her?" The trial had to be delayed when Stankewitz escaped from a courtroom-area holding cell that had not locked properly. He was recaptured two days later without a struggle. Durine the Denaltv Dhase. the prosecution emphasized that Stankewitz had committed vi- mem ana aiuic mc age ux including the shooting of a policeman at age 14 and repeated assaults on employees at the California Youth Authority.

Deputy District Attorney James Ardaiz said Stankewitz' parents and six brothers all have been convicted of violent crimes. The defense said Stankewitz was placed in Napa State Hospital and later in foster homes from age 6 onward because his parents beat him so badly he was hospitalized. Defense lawyer Sal Sciandra said Stankewitz simply reacted to the brutal surroundings in which he was raised. First Suits Filed In SD Crash SAN DIEGO (AP) The first lawsuits in the worst air crash in U.S. history seek a total of $2.25 million, and attorneys say as much as $100 million may eventually be asked by the 150 victims of the tragedy.

"The sooner somebody gets in line, the sooner he gets up to the counter," said one lawyer. The survivors of George Saunders of Palos Verdes filed a $2 million wrongful death suit Wednesday in Los Angeles Superior Court. Saunders, an aviation safety consultant, was among at least 135 people killed aboard a PSA jetliner which collided with a small airplane. He was married with two sons. A suit for $250,000 was filed in San Diego Superior Court by Katherine Hoffman, claiming she was injured and her house destroyed by debris from the collision.

Among the owners of the two planes involved, their pilots who died were listed as defendants. Attorneys in San Diego, San Francisco and Los Angeles said in separate interviews that they were certain survivors of Monday's air collision of a jetliner and a single-engine plane will also sue the Federal Aviation Administration. The system, which will be tested, said San Francisco attorney Gerald C. Sterns, will be the FAA's policy which puts final responsibility in pilots to watch for and avoid other planes. Sterns said the FAA, which runs airport control towers and regulates airplane safety, has a responsibility for ordering planes to stay out of one another's way.

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