Homosexual Gets Prison for Killing Youth Who Told

A Calabasas teen-ager was sentenced to 17 years to life in state prison Monday for shooting to death a schoolmate who, on the night of his high school graduation, told the youth’s parents that he was a homosexual.

Robert M. Rosenkrantz, 19, was sentenced in Van Nuys Superior Court to 15 years to life for second-degree murder and two years for using a gun in the June 28, 1985, death of Steven Redman, 17, also of Calabasas.

Rosenkrantz, who had been charged with first-degree murder, was convicted June 9 of second-degree murder for shooting Steven with an Uzi semiautomatic rifle on a Calabasas street.

According to trial testimony, Rosenkrantz, who has attracted sympathy from segments of the gay community, was enraged because Steven and Rosenkrantz’s younger brother, Joey, who were best friends, spied on him seeking to prove that he was a homosexual. They later told Rosenkrantz’s parents that he was a homosexual.

Recommendation Made

Over the objection of Deputy Dist. Atty. Larry Diamond, Judge James Albracht recommended that Rosenkrantz be sent to the heavy-to-medium-security California Men’s Colony in San Luis Obispo.

Rosenkrantz’s attorney, Richard S. Plotin, had requested that his client be placed in the San Luis Obispo facility, citing fears that Rosenkrantz’s youth, homosexuality and lack of a criminal record would make him a target in maximum-security state prisons.

State Department of Corrections figures show that the 4,200-inmate San Luis Obispo facility has a far lower inmate assault rate and is less plagued by gang violence than prisons at San Quentin, Folsom and Tracy.

The prosecutor, however, argued that Rosenkrantz still “feels that someone else was to blame” for Steven’s death and that there was little to “distinguish this case from any other second-degree-murder case.”

“I think it is unfortunate that this man (Rosenkrantz) has become a hero to the homosexual community,” Diamond said.

Plotin, who said he will appeal the conviction, said Rosenkrantz has helped hundreds of other homosexual youths who have written him in jail in response to widespread publicity about his case. A bailiff said Rosenkrantz receives more mail than any of the 1,736 inmates in the Hall of Justice jail.

In asking that Rosenkrantz be sent to San Luis Obispo, Plotin cited reports from several defense psychologists and psychiatrists and letters from the teen-ager’s family and friends describing the defendant as an intelligent, nonviolent youth who is unlikely ever to kill again.

Read From Letter

Plotin read from a letter written by Rosenkrantz to Albracht, in which the youth said, “The overwhelming clear message delivered by Steve’s death is that hate kills. There is no more room for hate! . . . I believe that Steve would not demand condemnation or retribution.”

Dressed in a purple and blue shirt and white pants, Rosenkrantz smiled and waved at his parents and two younger brothers after the sentence was pronounced.

With credit for good behavior and work, Rosenkrantz will be eligible for parole in about nine years.

In the courthouse cafeteria shortly before court began Monday, the youth’s father, Herbert Rosenkrantz, was served papers from a wrongful-death lawsuit filed June 20 in Van Nuys Superior Court on behalf of Barbara Redman, the victim’s mother.

The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages from Robert Rosenkrantz, his parents and brother, Joey, as well as Turner Sporting Goods Co. in Northridge, which sold Robert Rosenkrantz the weapon he used to kill Steven. Also named as defendants in the suit are Action Arms Ltd., U.S. distributor of the Uzi, and Israel Military Industries, the Israeli manufacturer of the weapon, attorney Kathy Seuthe said.