People v. Dehnel

[407]

Opinion

FLEMING, J.

Defendant Michael Robert Dehnel, in a joint trial with Tim Anderson and Dan Taylor, was convicted of conspiracy to commit murder. (Pen. Code, § 182, subd. 1.) We affirm.

Facts

Officer Paul Gebhardt of the Los Angeles Police Department joined the Ku Klux Klan in October 1976 as part of an assignment to infiltrate and report on various right-wing organizations. He participated in many Klan activities, became an officer in the organization, and became affiliated with members of the Klan, among them defendant, Tim Anderson, and Dan Taylor.

In March 1977 a right-wing activist disappeared, and Klan members suspected the Jewish Defense League (JDL) of kidnaping the missing activist after the latter solicited a Jewish printer to print anti-Semitic literature. On March 29 Gebhardt, Anderson, and Taylor met at defendant’s house with defendant and Ray Starcher, another Klansman. Defendant said he wanted to develop a plan to execute Irv Rubin, the West Coast coordinator of the JDL, and he announced that he would personally shoot anyone who foiled the plan. Defendant told Starcher to get a job at Rubin’s business, which he thought was located in Van Nuys. (In fact, the Van Nuys business belonged to a different Irv Rubin, who had no affiliation with the JDL.) Defendant ordered Taylor to keep the Van Nuys business address under surveillance and take a picture of Rubin. He instructed Gebhardt to survey Rubin’s residence, find the quickest escape route, and pinpoint the location of the nearest police station. Defendant asked Taylor if he could make a silencer for his .22 caliber survival rifle or .38 caliber two-inch revolver, and Taylor replied he believed he could machine the necessary parts. Subsequently, members of the group met several more times to discuss the best escape route and the manufacture of a silencer.

At one point Anderson suggested infiltration of the JDL as an alternative to the execution of Rubin. Defendant laughed at the idea, and thereafter no one dissented further from his plan. On several occasions Anderson and Taylor separately told Gebhardt they were hesistant about the plan and fearful of defendant, who had again threatened to kill anyone who failed to go along with his plan.