Scott Evans Dekraai. Photo courtesy of the OCSD
Paul Wilson, whose wife was among eight murdered in a rampage at a Seal Beach beauty salon five years ago Wednesday, struggles not just with grief, but also with anger aimed at the killer and his prosecutors and jailers.
Legal proceedings in the largest mass killing in Orange County’s history remain in limbo due to allegations from Scott Evans Dekraai‘s attorney, who has claimed a widespread conspiracy of violating the rights of Dekraai and multiple other defendants.
The accusations prompted a rare evidentiary hearing that led Orange County Superior Court Judge Thomas Goethals to remove the District Attorney’s Office from prosecuting Dekraai.
The Attorney General’s Office will argue on Monday before a three- justice panel of the California Fourth District Court of Appeal that the Orange County D.A.’s Office should be allowed to handle the penalty phase of the trial of the serial killer, who pleaded guilty.
“It just adds to the pain and suffering to every single family member,” said Wilson of the so-called “snitch scandal,” which revolves around the use of jailhouse informants in the case against Dekraai and multiple other defendants.
Dekraai’s attorney, Scott Sanders, has argued that his client’s constitutional rights were violated in the way informants were used to obtain damning evidence against his client.
Prosecutors deny the allegations, but Goethals ruled that the District Attorney has shown too much loyalty to the Sheriff’s Department, which he faulted for presenting dishonest testimony during the evidentiary hearing, and cannot be trusted to give Dekraai a fair penalty trial.
“Tony Rackauckas and his little boys club — what they’re doing is horrible,” Wilson told City News Service while on a business trip in China.
Wilson said he is philosophical about what Sanders is doing.
“I’m not happy he’s doing that… but the guy’s doing his job,” Wilson said. “I would hope the district attorney would do his job. (Sanders) is getting results and they’re not.”
Wilson recalled how a saddened Rackauckas promised justice for him in the days following his wife Christy’s murder.
“With a tear in his eye, he promised me he would get justice,” Wilson said. “He said he had my back and he would do everything possible that he would get justice and look at the track record.”
Rackauckas told City News Service today, “We’re continuing to prosecute the case. The question is simply when will the defendant get the death penalty, and we’re doing everything we can to see that he does.”
Rackauckas’ chief of staff, Susan Kang Schroeder, said she appreciates Wilson’s criticism. She said prosecutors believe the only punishment suitable for Dekraai is death.
“In this case, some of the victims still want us to proceed, and not only that, we believe it’s our responsibility to the people of Orange County to proceed on the death penalty,” Schroeder said. “There’s no other penalty that even comes close in this case.”
Wilson isn’t opposed to the death penalty on principle. But with the long delays and a hold on capital punishment in California, it doesn’t make sense for prosecutors to pursue it in Dekraai’s case, he said.
Wilson, who gathered with his family for a memorial get-together before his business trip, said his thoughts often turn to happy memories of his time with his wife, who he met when he was 21. She was 47 when she was killed in the Oct. 12, 2011, ambush.
“I think of the life I had with her,” Wilson said. “We did incredible things. It’s an experience we had that not many people would be able to say they had. So I’m grateful for that. I know I got a lottery ticket in that experience.”
He added, “I struggle with that roller coaster of emotions every day.”
Wilson noted their granddaughter, who was 2 when his wife was murdered, doesn’t understand where she’s gone.
“Now she’s 7 and I can’t get her to understand why she can’t see Christy,” he said, adding the grief “is just as bad as it was the first October. There will never be closure.”
Dekraai argued with his ex-wife, 48-year-old Michelle Marie Fournier, over the phone the morning he launched his deadly attack. He’d been involved in a child support dispute with her.
He drove to the Salon Meritage at 500 Pacific Coast Highway about 1:20 p.m., walked up to his ex-wife and shot her multiple times.
After he gunned down Fournier, he turned his gun on Christy Wilson because she had testified against him in a child support hearing. He was armed with three handguns, extra magazines and ammunition and was wearing a bullet- proof vest.
The shop’s owner, 62-year-old Randy Lee Fannin, ran up to try to stop him with a pair of scissors, so Dekraai opened fire and killed him, as well.
“Dekraai then stated he started shooting random people inside the salon because he looked at them as collateral damage,” according to court papers.
Victoria Ann Buzzo, 54, Lucia Berniece Kondas, 65, Laura Lee Elody, 46, and Michele Dashbach Fast, 47, died at the scene.
After leaving the salon, Dekraai gunned down his last victim, 64-year- old David Caouette, as the victim sat in his Range Rover, which was parked next to the gunman’s vehicle. He told investigators he thought Caouette was an off- duty or undercover police officer and … was reaching to his floorboard for a weapon.”
Dekraai pleaded guilty May 2, 2014, to the eight murders and an attempted murder involving a ninth victim, 77-year-old Hattie Stretz, who survived.
—City News Service
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