Murder charge from ’94 killing dismissed
Judge rules that DA can’t justify delayed prosecution amid a key witness’ death.
SAN DIEGO — When Karl Senser was carjacked, kidnapped and slain in 1994, San Diego police and prosecutors believed two men carried out the killing. But they initially only prosecuted one for the slaying, believing they did not have sufficient evidence to convict the other.
That changed five years ago, when they retested DNA evidence from the case. In 2021, they charged Leon Daniel McInnis, who is now 50, on a murder charge with special-circumstance allegations.
A San Diego Superior Court judge dismissed the case against McInnis on Aug. 9, siding with defense attorneys who argued that due to the passage of time and the death of a key witness, he could not receive a fair trial.
Pretrial dismissals of murder cases on due process grounds are rare but not unprecedented. However, McInnis’ case was made even more peculiar by what happened in June, when his court-appointed public defender, Stephen Cline, collapsed in the courtroom while arguing pretrial motions in his defense and died.
Courtney Cutter, a colleague of Cline’s at the San Diego County Public Defender’s Office, quickly took over the case. Less than a month after Cline’s death, and with help from others in the office, she filed a motion to dismiss the case, then spent three days arguing on her new client’s behalf in pretrial hearings.
On Aug. 4, San Diego Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Fraser issued a dismissal order, making it official days later. McInnis was released from custody.
Fraser ruled that Cline and Cutter had proved McInnis was prejudiced by the 27 years that passed between the crime and McInnis being charged. The judge ruled that Dist. Atty. Summer Stephan’s office violated McInnis’ due-process rights and did not establish justification for such a delay.
“Prosecution of murder cases even decades after their commission is a worthwhile endeavor in which society has a strong interest,” the judge wrote. “However, when the passage of time causes significant prejudice and law enforcement cannot justify the delay, due process necessitates dismissal.”
He wrote that the death of one particular witness who could have provided exculpatory evidence — a man who had seen the two homicide suspects but didn’t identify McInnis during a live lineup — “creates substantial prejudice.”
The District Attorney’s Office has 60 days from the dismissal date to appeal the judge’s ruling.
Deputy Dist. Atty. Vanessa Gerard wrote in an email that her office is “evaluating the available appellate remedies.”
Cutter, the deputy public defender who took over the case, declined to comment. McInnis could not be located for comment.
Dane Senser, one of the victim’s brothers, wrote a letter to the Judicial Council of California accusing Fraser of bias over his response to Cline collapsing in his courtroom and later dying. In a Union-Tribune story about Cline’s death, Fraser called the longtime defense lawyer an “outstanding attorney” and described his death as “heartbreaking.”
In a phone interview Wednesday, Senser said Fraser should have at that point “immediately dismissed himself. He was involved emotionally with him, he was a friend of his. He was biased.”
Senser said his family has been through “horrendous experiences, but nothing is more hurtful or devastating than when a judge does this to you.”
Fraser addressed the accusations in court. “I want to state unequivocally that Mr. Cline’s death had absolutely nothing to do with my ruling,” the judge said, according to a transcript of the Aug. 9 hearing.
He said he respected Cline as an attorney, but they would sometimes go years without seeing each other in the courtroom, and they never had a personal relationship outside of court.
“I feel sorry for the pain of the family,” Fraser said. “But their pain cannot be the basis of my ruling. That wouldn’t be justice.”
Karl Senser was killed on Mother’s Day 1994 after being carjacked and kidnapped outside a friend’s apartment near Ocean Beach. He was found stabbed to death several hours later in University Heights.
Senser, a 43-year-old part-time ballroom dance instructor who lived in Del Cerro, had been stabbed fives times in the chest. Evidence suggested one person held back his arms while another stabbed him.
Investigators quickly zeroed in on McInnis, who was 21 years old at the time, and his friend Steven Gary Thomas. Both men were also suspects in a similar carjacking and kidnapping incident days earlier involving a 23-year-old student near San Diego State University.
About two months after Senser’s slaying, a San Diego grand jury indicted Thomas for both Senser’s murder and the kidnapping of the college student. Prosecutors said Thomas’ fingerprints were found on three crucial items, including Senser’s car. A jury eventually convicted him of killing Senser, as well as carjacking and kidnapping the college student. He remains in prison without the possibility of parole.
McInnis was indicted just days after Thomas, but not for participating in the murder. He was charged with kidnapping the college student, but only charged as an accessory to Senser’s murder for allegedly helping dispose of the weapon.
Gerard, the prosecutor, wrote in court filings last year that McInnis “remained the prime second suspect in Karl Senser’s murder,” but that he was not charged alongside Thomas “due to the lack of forensic evidence.”
McInnis pleaded guilty in 1995 to carjacking and kidnapping the college student. In exchange, prosecutors dropped the accessory to murder charge. The two sides agreed to a 15-year prison sentence, of which McInnis served 12 years. He was released in 2006 and completed parole in 2010 at age 37.
His attorneys wrote that he had not been in legal trouble since his release, and that he left the San Diego area.
In 2018, prosecutors began taking a fresh look at the forensic evidence by retesting DNA samples taken from the seat covers in Senser’s car and a knife, which was not the murder weapon, that was found at the carjacking scene.
Prosecutors said DNA from the napkin wrapped around the knife handle contained a two-person mixture, with McInnis as a 93% contributor, according to documents in the case. It was unknown who contributed the other 7%.
DNA from four people was found on the seat cover, with 58% from Senser, 22% from an unknown contributor, 12% from McInnis and 8% from Thomas, according to court documents.
Prosecutors believed those results gave them what they needed to prove McInnis’ guilt, and in 2021 they sought and obtained an arrest warrant. Authorities took McInnis into custody in Michigan, where he was living. He remained in custody in lieu of a $2-million bond until the dismissal of his case.
Cline and Cutter raised several potential issues as the case progressed, including questions about the chain of custody of evidence over the years. Cline also argued prosecutors improperly withheld evidence.
Fraser, the judge, wrote that issues with the evidence “may have also prejudiced” McInnis, but the key reasons for dismissal came down to the death of one eyewitness and the poor memory of another. Both men told police they saw the suspects up close, but neither of them identified McInnis when presented with photograph or live lineups.
Fraser wrote that he considered “several remedies short of dismissal,” but none of them would have adequately ensured a fair trial.