A Highland man was convicted Thursday, Feb. 23, of two rapes that occurred greater than twenty years in the past in south Orange County regardless of claims by his protection legal professional that the crimes had been truly carried out by his twin brother.
An Orange County Superior Courtroom jury deliberated for round 4 hours earlier than discovering Kevin Konther responsible of raping a 9-year-old woman in Lake Forest in 1995 and a 32-year-old girl in Mission Viejo in 1998 in addition to committing lewd acts on a girlfriend’s daughter when she was 8 or 9 years previous on the couple’s houses in Huntington Seaside and Highland.
As a result of they're twins, DNA from the rapes initially was tied to each Konthers. However a secretly recorded dialog between the brothers whereas they had been in police custody that a prosecutor argued basically served as a confession by Kevin Konther, now 57 years previous, led investigators to determine him because the rapist.
“This case is a couple of responsible man who knew precisely what he did in evading detection for horrendous crimes 25-plus years in the past,” Deputy District Lawyer Juliet Oliver stated throughout her closing arguments on Wednesday in a Santa Ana courtroom. “He knew precisely what he was responsible of, and he knew precisely why he was being arrested.”
Through the recorded dialog, Kevin Konther repeatedly apologized to his offended and confused brother, at one level telling him, “I’m a legal in my previous. I've severe points. Now I’ve bought to pay for it and I don’t wish to.”
“It’s my, my dangerous previous caught as much as me … my stupidity … my wrongdoing,” Konther advised his brother at one other level. “My chemical imbalance in my mind. I’ve been preventing that demon for a very long time. I simply hate girls, that’s my drawback.”
Konther referenced eager to flee to Mexico or to Canada through the dialog, the prosecutor stated.
Deputy Public Defender Jessica Ann Sweeny advised jurors that Kevin Konther was protecting for his brother, having determined to be the one to take the blame. The protection legal professional raised the chance that Konther through the recorded dialog may have been repeating particulars of the sexual assaults he had already heard from police investigators and should have recognized he was being recorded.
“Kevin didn't do that,” Sweeny advised jurors.
Neither Kevin Konther nor his brother testified through the trial.
The primary sufferer, who's now 36, testified that a man got here up behind her whereas she was strolling house from a retailer in 1995, put a hand over her mouth, advised her he had a knife and pulled her down an embankment into Serrano Creek Park in Lake Forest. She stated she pleaded with the attacker to not kill her as he pressured her to take off her garments and raped her. She stated at one level she advised the rapist that she was solely 9, and he laughed.
Three years later, the prosecutor stated, Konther grabbed a 32-year-old girl working alongside a secluded bike path in Mission Viejo, dragged her down an embankment and raped her.
Investigators collected DNA throughout forensic exams of each the woman and the girl and decided the identical man carried out each rapes. Authorities had been unable to determine a suspect till 2018, when the circumstances had been re-opened and an Orange County sheriff’s investigator labored with the FBI’s Family tree Crew to discover cutting-edge familial DNA searches.
It wasn’t disclosed how DNA from one of many brothers, or a member of the family, ended up in a database. Investigators collected DNA from the Konther brothers from their trash, in accordance with courtroom testimony.
Police additionally realized of accusations made towards Konther by a girlfriend’s daughter. The woman accused Konther of going into her room bare in 2003 whereas she was pretending to sleep and standing uncomfortably near her and generally flattening her pants and underwear.
Konther is scheduled to return to court docket for sentencing on March 21. He faces as much as 140 years to life in jail.