'Rockefeller' imposter Gerhartsreiter convicted of murder
Court finds German immigrant guilty of killings which took place in the 1980s
A small, bespectacled German immigrant who invented a glamorous life for himself in the United States by posing as an heir to the fabled Rockefeller fortune has been sentenced to 27 years to life in prison for a California cold-case murder.
Representing himself after firing his lawyers, Christian Gerhartsreiter, 52, asserted that he did not commit the mid-1980s murder of John Sohus in the wealthy city of San Marino and asked to read a voluminous motion he had submitted to the court. Superior Court Judge George Lomeli refused.
Gerhartsreiter, who fooled friends, lovers and a wife during an extraordinary three-decade charade, entered the courtroom balancing in his arms a mountain of transcripts from his trial. He submitted a brief sentencing memorandum asking that he be given time served and probation. The judge rejected that.
The hearing on Thursday was marked by an emotional statement from Sohus' sister, who said some questions in the case would never be answered. She said that until his dying day, her father always asked, "Why John?"
Ellen Sohus told the judge: "You cannot give me back my brother. All I ask is that you hold Mr Gerhartsreiter accountable."