Court Upholds Conviction in Double Killing

The 2nd District Court of Appeal on Thursday upheld the conviction of Frederick George Roehler II for murdering his wife and stepson to collect $700,000 in life insurance, despite the dissent of one justice who said experiments simulating the boating incident that led to the victims’ drownings “unduly confused and influenced the jury.”

Verna Jo Roehler, 36, the Malibu man’s second wife, and her son, Douglas Johnson, 8, died Jan. 2, 1981, near Bird Rock at Santa Cruz Island.

Roehler, 42, claimed that they drowned accidentally while trying to save a pet dog that had jumped out of their 16-foot dory. But prosecutors successfully argued that the unemployed engineer murdered the two in order to collect on insurance.

Roehler was convicted May 8, 1982, and sentenced to life without parole.

Justice L. Thaxton Hanson, writing the majority’s opinion, said experiments about overturning a dory and other circumstantial evidence presented during the 70-day trial adequately proved Roehler’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt and that the trial judge’s jury instructions were fair.

Justice Vincent S. Dalsimer, in dissent, said the conviction should be overturned because jurors had been misled by improper admission of irrelevant experiments “compounded by the confusing and erroneous jury instructions and argument of counsel.”