Death Row Urged for Man in Fatal Robbery

VAN NUYS —  A man who just one month out of prison abducted, robbed and executed a man in North Hollywood should be sentenced to death because of his long history of violence, a prosecutor said Tuesday.

But the attorney representing Scott Forrest Collins told the same jury that convicted his client that he should be spared because he had a dysfunctional relationship with his mother.

These contrasting views came during opening statements Tuesday in the penalty phase of Collins’ murder trial.

Fred D. Rose, 41, a construction supervisor who lived with his family in Valencia, was abducted in Palmdale and forced to accompany his killer to the San Fernando Valley, where he was shot in the back of the head near some railroad tracks.

Collins, 21, of Palmdale, was found guilty of Rose’s murder, and a Van Nuys Superior Court jury is now deciding if Collins should be sent to Death Row or if he should serve the rest of his life in prison.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Lea Purwin D’Agostino told the jury that witnesses will clearly explain how Collins has been a violent person since 16. He has continued to be incorrigible, the prosecutor said, even during his nearly two-year incarceration since Rose’s murder.

During closing arguments in the first phase of the trial, D’Agostino said Collins killed Rose to ensure that there would be no witnesses to his latest crime. Collins, who was convicted in 1989 of armed robbery and sentenced to five years in prison, was paroled one month before Rose’s murder.

The jury will hear evidence from both sides and then will be asked to balance the aggravating and mitigating factors, or “the bad things and the good things in the defendant’s past life,” in D’Agostino’s words.

Superior Court Judge Leon Kaplan will have the final say when he formally sentences Collins, but judges rarely disregard recommendations made by juries.

Defense attorney Bruce Hill asked the jury to examine what he characterized as the central question in the case: “How did Mr. Collins get here?”

After explaining that certain animals have symbiotic, or mutually beneficial, relationships, Hill said his client never went through the normal process of severing this bond with his mother.

Hill said he will present psychiatric testimony showing that Collins was deeply affected by the relationship and it caused problems for him later in life.