Jury Urges Death Penalty in Murder Case : Courts: Defendant was earlier convicted of abducting and executing a Valencia man. Formal sentencing will be next month.
VAN NUYS — Scott Forrest Collins, a parolee who had been free from prison only one month before he kidnaped and murdered a Valencia man, should be executed for his crime, a Van Nuys Superior Court jury ruled Tuesday.
Judge Leon Kaplan will formally sentence Collins on Dec. 2. Although Kaplan is authorized to disregard the jury’s recommendation and sentence Collins to life in prison without the possibility of parole, judges rarely overlook a jury’s sentencing decision.
The same panel that voted for the death penalty convicted Collins, 23, in September of abducting and executing Fred D. Rose, a 41-year-old construction supervisor and father of three.
“None of this brings Fred back, but it’s the second-best thing,†said the victim’s wife, Sharon Rose.
In a phone interview from the undisclosed southern state where she relocated her family after the slaying, Sharon Rose thanked the “courageous†jury. “I feel like they didn’t abandon me,†she said.
After the verdict, Deputy Dist. Atty. Lea Purwin D’Agostino hugged each juror, expressing thanks on behalf of the widow.
“One of the things I stressed in my argument was if they could find one redeeming thing in this defendant’s background, then spare his life,†D’Agostino said. “They said they really did try to find something redeeming, but could find nothing.â€
Jurors who later discussed the case for more than two hours with the prosecutor said they were struck by Collins’ apparent lack of remorse.
When court clerk Mike McCullough read the verdict, Collins showed no response. Seconds later, he took a sip of water and whispered to his attorney.
Collins was convicted of shooting Rose once in the back of the head on Jan. 23, 1992, near railroad tracks in North Hollywood. The slaying took place about four hours after Rose disappeared from Palmdale after going out for lunch.
Jurors described to attorneys how they used a protractor, string and a coroner’s report to determine that Rose must have been on his knees when Collins fired the fatal shot.
During the period between the abduction and the gunshots, Collins used Rose’s automated teller machine card at a Northridge bank, trying to shield his face from security cameras with Rose’s hard hat, according to the evidence.
The day after the killing, Collins was arrested in Bakersfield, where he was linked to a drive-by shooting. Gang members he knew there testified that Collins confessed that his gun and Rose’s stolen car “had a murder rap.â€
Defense attorney Bruce Hill said he was disappointed with the verdict.
“I have a lingering suspicion . . . that he was not the one who caused the death,†Hill said.
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