JURY FINDS ADULT SON WAS SANE WHEN HE STRANGLED AND MURDERED 82-YEAR-OLD WIDOWED MOTHER IN HER LEISURE WORLD HOME

For Immediate Release Case # 06CF3373   May 13, 2010

Susan Kang Schroeder Chief of Staff Office: 714-347-8408 Cell: 714-292-2718 Farrah Emami Spokesperson Office: 714-347-8405 Cell: 714-323-4486

JURY FINDS ADULT SON WAS SANE WHEN HE STRANGLED AND MURDERED 82-YEAR-OLD WIDOWED MOTHER IN HER LEISURE WORLD HOME

 

SANTA ANA – A jury found today that an adult son was sane when he strangled and murdered his 82-year-old widowed mother, with whom he was living in her Leisure World home. Ethan Emanuel Rosenfeld, 52, Laguna Woods, was found guilty by a jury May 5, 2010, of one felony count of first degree murder. Rosenfeld faces a maximum sentence of 25 years to life in state prison at his sentencing on June 11, 2010, at 9:00 a.m. in Department C-30, Central Justice Center, Santa Ana.

 

Between 4:00 a.m. and 6:00 a.m. on May 30, 2005, Rosenfeld strangled and murdered his 82-year-old widowed mother, Helen. He put her dead body in her bed, crossed her arms across her chest, and wrapped her body in a sheet. The defendant, who was unemployed and living with his mother in her Leisure World home in Laguna Woods, then fled taking the victim’s credit card and car.

 

Rosenfeld went to Starbucks and a gas station and tried to use his murdered mother’s credit card to buy coffee and chewing tobacco. He drove around for a while before returning to the house. At approximately 10:00 a.m., Rosenfeld called 911 and claimed that he found his mother dead and that she had passed away in her sleep.

 

As Rosenfeld entered pleas of “not guilty” and “not guilty by reason of insanity,” the trial was held in two phases. In the guilt phase, during which the court heard evidence about the crime, the prosecution proved beyond a reasonable doubt to the jury that the defendant is guilty of the charged crime. In the sanity phase, the same jury considered evidence to determine if the defendant was legally sane at the time of the crime.  When a defendant pleads “not guilty by reason of insanity,” the burden is on the defense to prove that the defendant was more likely than not legally insane when he committed the crime. To be considered legally insane, the defense must prove that the defendant had a mental disease or defect when he committed the crime and that this defect kept the defendant from understanding the nature of his act or from understanding that his act was morally or legally wrong. 

 

Senior Deputy District Attorney Ebrahim Baytieh of the Homicide Unit is prosecuting this case. 

 

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