Results 1 to 4 of 4

Thread: Larry Kusuth Hazlett, Jr. - California Death Row

  1. #1
    Guest
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Posts
    5,534

    Larry Kusuth Hazlett, Jr. - California Death Row

    V42368 (1).jpg
    Larry Kusuth Hazlett


    Summary of Offense:

    On October 24, 1978, Hazlett raped and murdered former beauty queen, Tana Woolley. Hazlett lived in Woolley’s apartment building and was the prime suspect initially, but police lacked evidence to arrest him. The case went unsolved for 24 years until DNA evidence pointed to Hazlett. In aggravation, prosecution presented evidence of four other rapes Hazlett committed. The defense attacked the DNA evidence, arguing the semen was not initially found on the bedspread.

    Hazlett was sentenced to death in Kern County on July 14, 2004.

  2. #2
    December 19, 2002

    Man accused in slaying has long history of arrests

    The man arrested for raping and murdering a popular Rosamond woman 24 years ago has a long history of arrests -- but few convictions -- for assault and sexual-related offenses, court documents released Thursday say.

    But Larry Kusuth Hazlett, 55, is a registered sex offender for a misdemeanor child molestation conviction and he fits much of a 1983 FBI profile about what type of person killed and sexually assaulted 20-year-old Tana Woolley in Rosamond, court reports say.

    The profile says the way Woolley was killed indicates an interracial crime -- Hazlett is black and Woolley is white -- by someone who was rejected by the victim.

    Hazlett was brought to court Thursday to be arraigned on potential capital murder charges in Woolley's strangulation death, but his arraignment was delayed to Dec. 26 so that he can try to find an attorney.

    He is charged with murder and special circumstances -- eligible for the death penalty or life in prison without the possibility of parole -- of murder during a rape and murder during a burglary.

    District Attorney Ed Jagels said a final decision has not been made on whether to seek the death penalty against Hazlett.

    Hazlett lived in the same Poplar Street apartment complex as Woolley -- his back window faced her front window -- and he was interviewed by sheriff's deputies Oct. 25, 1978, the day the victim's mother found her partially nude daughter laying dead on her bed with a blue sock wrapped around her neck.

    At that time, Hazlett said he went to the store on the night before -- during the time witnesses said they heard screams, but shrugged them off as children -- and he didn't learn about the death until the day the body was found.

    Witnesses reported that Woolley, who moved away from her parents and into the apartment complex just three weeks earlier, had expressed concerns about white men staring at her but she also thought someone from Hazlett's apartment was looking at her.

    That made her very careful about opening her door, even when her boyfriend came by.

    He told investigators she would look out a window before opening up the door for him, and when he dropped her off -- as he did at 10:30 p.m. Oct. 24, 1978, less than an hour before the screams were heard -- would look around her apartment to make sure no one was there.

    Just before her boyfriend, Ricky Max Rush, then 18, took her to her apartment that night, they played backgammon and watched "Starsky and Hutch" on television. Rush was examined but ruled out as a suspect in the case.

    No real progress in the case was made and it became inactive in 1983, after the FBI profile was made.

    That profile by Special Agent Blaine McIlwaine says the door jam of Woolley's apartment indicates the front door was forcibly opened.

    He said the offender surprised the victim and hit her in the mouth in the living room where an alarm clock was knocked over (she normally slept in the living room).

    Woolley rejected the offender's advances and he became angry, using a blue sock he took off her left foot and wrapped it around her neck, strangling her to death. The profiler called it a weapon of opportunity.

    The profile says the offender is probably in his late teens to early 20s -- Hazlett was 31 at the time -- and he will have a penchant for violence and assaultive behavior.

    A criminal record for Hazlett shows arrests from 1969 for drugs, burglary, assault with a deadly weapon, kidnapping, rape, resisting arrest before 1979, but only one conviction for assault in 1971.

    In 1973, Hazlett was investigated for raping a woman, but the woman declined to follow through with the investigation and Hazlett said he had consensual sex with the woman, court records say.

    Hazlett worked at U.S. Borax, but quit in December 1978 after he was accused of making tape-recorded bomb threats at the plant -- an accusation he denied.

    His criminal history continued with arrests from 1979 to 1992 for theft, indecent exposure, rape and child molest in various cities, ending with a 1992 misdemeanor conviction in Sacramento where he worked as a music teacher.

    He was acquitted of five other crimes in the case in which he was convicted of the misdemeanor.

    The Woolley case was reopened by Kern County sheriff's Detective Chris Speer in 1999 who began to focus on Hazlett because of his criminal history.

    On Tuesday of this week, Hazlett told Kern County detectives that he was framed in the Sacramento case. He also told the detectives he was innocent of Woolley's death and never was inside of her apartment.

    Detective Joe Hicks asked, "Would it change your story if I told you from the original crime scene, the Kern County District Attorney lab found biological evidence of you being present?"

    Hazlett replied, "That's a damn lie and at this junction I want a lawyer right now."

    http://www.corpus-delicti.com/bakersfield_121902.html

  3. #3
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Posts
    33,217
    Docket (Register of Actions)

    PEOPLE v. HAZLETT (LARRY KUSUTH) Case Number S126387

    Direct appeal pending.
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

    "Y'all be makin shit up" ~ Markeith Loyd

  4. #4
    Administrator Moh's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Location
    Germany
    Posts
    13,014
    Hazlett's direct appeal has been fully briefed before the California Supreme Court since January 17, 2017.

    http://appellatecases.courtinfo.ca.g...doc_no=S126387

Thread Information

Users Browsing this Thread

There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •