Killer of O.C. Deputy Gets Death

Calling the 1999 slaying of an Orange County sheriff’s deputy a “coldblooded, unprovoked attack,” a judge Friday sentenced the killer to death.

Judge Frank F. Fasel rejected a defense lawyer’s argument that Maurice Gerald Steskal should instead be sentenced to life in prison because of mental illness the defense said caused the killer to irrationally fear police officers.

Deputy Brad Riches, 34, was pulling his patrol car into a 7-Eleven parking lot June 12, 1999, when Steskal opened fire with an AK-47, striking the deputy repeatedly.

The crime touched many lives, Senior Asst. Dist. Atty. Bryan Brown said Friday.

Brad Riches’ mother still hasn’t recovered from his death. Neither has the deputy’s father, who has been clinically depressed and unable to work.

“He still can’t talk about it. When his son died, it’s like he died, too,” Brown said Friday as Bruce Riches turned away from the media in Orange County Superior Court.

Nearly 60 of Riches’ colleagues and friends attended the sentencing in Fasel’s Santa Ana courtroom, with a dozen more forced to wait outside because the courtroom seats were filled.

When Fasel read the order to commit Steskal, 44, to San Quentin State Prison’s death row, the killer nodded slightly but otherwise showed no emotion.

His attorney, Deputy Public Defender Mark Davis, said Steskal had an encounter with a sheriff’s deputy months before the shooting that escalated his fear of police. In that incident, a deputy strip-searched Steskal and threw him to the ground during a traffic stop, Davis said.

Based on the way Riches had been portrayed in court testimony, Davis said, “If it had been Brad Riches making that stop that night, I’d venture to say we wouldn’t all be here today.”

Steskal’s “minimal mental defect,” Fasel said, “was not sufficient to outweigh the callousness of his crime. His mental defect explains, but does not excuse, his behavior.”

An Orange County jury in December declared that Steskal should be put to death for his crime. An earlier jury that had convicted Steskal deadlocked 11 to 1 in favor of life in prison without parole for the unemployed laborer.

Members of the most recent jury said the impact of the killing on Riches’ family and friends overshadowed Steskal’s mental illness.

Riches’ mother, Meriel, attended most key hearings but was unable to travel from her home in England for the sentencing. Brown read a statement from the deputy’s mother during Friday’s hearing. She said the shooting destroyed her family.

Her husband, she wrote, “is truly a broken man.” In urging the death sentence for Steskal, she added, “I believe there should be no alternative to death, if by this action one police officer becomes safer.”

Riches was the first Orange County deputy sheriff since 1958 to be fatally shot while on duty.

While Riches was still in his patrol car, Steskal unleashed 30 rounds of ammunition at the deputy.

“It’s not easy to condemn someone,” Brown told the judge, “but by his actions, Mr. Steskal has condemned himself.”

The case automatically goes to the California Supreme Court on appeal. It can take up to six years for the state to appoint an appeals lawyer for the defendant. If the state appeal fails, Steskal may take his case to the federal courts.