Alecia Foster
PASADENA -- A Pasadena Superior Court Judge denied Friday a request to
suppress a taped interview of a man admitting to strangling a colleague
and pushing her body off a cliff.
Judge Teri Schwartz denied defense attorney Michael Abzug's request to
suppress the tape in which Kevin Paul Anderson, 41, is heard telling
sheriff's investigators that he had choked colleague Deepti Gupta until
she was unconscious.
Abzug had argued for suppression of the tape on the grounds that his
client's Miranda rights had been violated and that Anderson would not
receive a fair trial because portions of the taped Nov. 12, 1999,
interview were missing.
"It's our position that those statements by Dr. Anderson were enough
to invoke Miranda," Abzug said.
On the tape, played in court Friday for the first time, Los Angeles
Sheriff's Department investigators advised Anderson of his rights. In
some parts, Anderson questioned sheriff's officials about getting an
attorney.
When questioned on the stand about that discussion with investigators
and why Anderson continued to answer questions if he was interested in
getting a lawyer, Anderson said, "I felt the interview was going to go on
anyway. I didn't not want to cooperate."
The tape, which had been kept under seal until Friday, appears to
reveal some of the incidents that occurred Nov. 11, 1999.
On it, Anderson is heard telling investigators how he and Gupta went
up the Angeles National Forest to look at the stars. Anderson said in the
tape that Gupta began threatening to tell, although it was not specific
who, that she was pregnant with his child.
Prosecutors have confirmed that Gupta was pregnant at the time but
have not released DNA tests done to determine the identity of the father.
Deputy Dist. Atty. Marian Thompson had argued in an earlier hearing
that Gupta's threats to tell Anderson's wife about the pregnancy and
their affair drove Anderson to murder.
On the tape, however, Anderson said he got upset with Gupta after she
made threats against his daughter, saying she knew where his daughter
went to school.
"When she said that I just lost it," Anderson said on the tape, adding
that he became angry.
He described how he choked Gupta and then used a Snoopy tie he had in
his car to do the same, he said on the tape.
"By the time I stopped, she looked like she was unconscious," Anderson
told investigators during the taped interview.
He went on to described how he "panicked" and decided to make it look
like she was in an accident by pushing Gupta and her car off a cliff,
according to the tape.
The tape cut off at the point where Anderson was putting Gupta in the
drivers seat of her car. Portions of the interview were garbled and went
silent.
Sheriff's Homicide Det. Dan McElderry testified that when they had
flipped the tape over, the recorder malfunctioned and nothing was
recorded. He and another investigator did not realize it until later,
McElderry said.
Abzug said the detectives "violated (Anderson's) right to a fair trial
by failing to record his entire interview."
Judge Schwartz denied Abzug's motions and the tape will be admitted
into evidence in the case, which has been set for trial Oct. 18.
A grand jury indicted Anderson Jan. 18 on one count of murder with the
special circumstance of lying in wait. Prosecurtors announced in June
they will seek the death penalty in the case.
