Onion Field Murder Trials: 1963-69

No judge in Los Angeles wanted to touch the case. Thomas LeSage, a brand-new judge, was assigned to it. When he asked if there were any pretrial motions, Kanarek launched his patented barrage of irrelevancies. It culminated when he accused Halpin of mouthing an obscenity. The prosecutor's patience broke. He grabbed Kanarek by the shirt and screamed, "I will not permit this man to say that about me!" Kanarek demanded that the prosecutor be arrested for assault.

Halpin was removed from the case. So was—finally—Irving Kanarek. Kanarek's dismissal came after a motion by Jimmy Smith to fire his lawyer. Smith became so hostile to his defense attorney that he shoved Kanarek away from him and threw a chair at him. A Pasadena attorney named Charles Hollopeter was assigned to advise Smith. Kanarek maintained that his client was unable to think clearly. He further argued that the judge had no right to ask Jimmy Smith about his choice of lawyers. He charged that the judge was proceeding illegally. The judge, however, ruled that the hostility between Smith and his lawyer prevented the defendant from having the representation by counsel required by law. He relieved Kanarek of his duties. That ruling was final. The next day, he ordered separate trials for the two defendants.

With Kanarek gone, jury selection for the Gregory Powell trial was able to proceed. This time, the confessions and all incriminating statements by the defendants were inadmissible. To a large extent, the case depended on Karl Hettinger, the policeman who had escaped. Hettinger, however, was not the man he was six years before. Practically accused of cowardice, he had been taken off patrol and assigned to drive the chief of police. Colleagues shunned him. Mental and emotional troubles mounted. He had become a kleptomaniac and had been dismissed from the force. By the time he was called as a witness, his memory of events on the night of the shooting was blurred. Prosecutors Joseph Busch and Raymond Byrne were able, however, to present enough evidence to get a guilty verdict. In the penalty hearing, prosecutor Sheldon Brown convinced the jury to prescribe the death sentence. During the trial, Powell tried to escape again, and at one time attacked a spectator while leaving the courtroom.

In his new trial, Jimmy Smith was defended by Charles Hollopeter, while Dino Fulgoni represented the state. After a short time it appeared that Smith didn't like Hollopeter much better than he liked Kanarek. Although Smith, as well as Powell, had actually fired bullets into Campbell, his defense was that he had nothing to do with the shooting. Hollopeter bolstered this defense by calling Powell as a witness. Powell answered almost all questions by invoking the Fifth Amendment. But Powell was a "scary dude." Jurors treated to his malevolent glare were convinced that he was the evil leader of the Powell-Smith partner-ship. The jurors found Smith guilty but voted for life imprisonment on November 6, 1969. On December 3, 1969, the twelfth judge to be involved with the "Onion Field" case sentenced Gregory Powell to death. But the case wasn't over yet.