Feb. 20, 1979 — Two parolees with ties to the Manson family were fatally shot during a night of terror and violence that involved no fewer than 12 adults and five children, according to testimony just completed in a two-week-long preliminary hearing in Sacramento Municipal Court.
Four of the participants — Chester lee Hunt, 29; Robert Harry Chrisman, 25; Della Arlene Hunt, 28, and Donna Lorene Bierer — were bound over Friday to stand trial on charges of double murder and eight other felony counts in the late 1978 killings of James Terrill Craig, 38, and Edward Albert Barabas, 27.
Barabas and Craig were left in the trunk of a burning, gasoline-doused automobile early Nov. 15 on the Garden Highway.
Barabas was found dead of a gunshot wound in the brain, but Craig lingered for more than a month at University medical Center before dying Dec. 22.
Craig’s jaw had been shot away by a shotgun blast, his buttocks burned off in the auto fire and his right arm and three fingers of his left hand amputated at the hospital.
The bizarre story of the Barabas-Craig slayings emerged during a preliminary hearing before Municipal Court Judge Peter Mering.
The chain of events that proved so deadly began in July, according to Gordon Gunter, a house builder who admitted in court to being a part-time marijuana dealer. He lives on his own 50-acre pear orchard near Hood.
Gunter, who had known Hunt for about three years and was using Chrisman as a laborer in his construction business, was introduced to Barabas and Craig at that time by former Manson follower Priscilla Cooper, 27, convicted in 1973 as an accessory to murder in the death of Lauren Willett in Stockton.
Craig also had been convicted as an accessory to the murder of Mrs. Willett, whose body was found buried beneath the home of Ms. Cooper and two other Manson followers, Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme and Nancy Laura Pitman.
And he was found guilty of the same crime in connection with the death of Mrs. Willett’s husband, James, who was beheaded and buried in a shallow grave near Guerneville.
Gunter testified that Ms. Cooper stopped by his house one day in July with Barabas and Craig, who had just gotten out of Folsom Prison.
“I tried to help them out,” Gunter said. “I know how hard it is for an ex-convict. I tried to get them a job.”
Barabas and Craig also became acquainted with Hunt, and the four of them, Gunter included, went out drinking together at times, Gunter said.
Instead of working with Gunter, Craig and Barabas started robbing drug dealers in the Sacramento area, according to law enforcement sources.
And in late October, they teamed with Luis Rodriguez and Margaret Klaess, the two persons who have been charged with the killing of two California Highway Patrol officers, in the robbery of a North Sacramento cocaine dealer, according to statements by Ms. Klaess.
About that same time, Gunter said, Chrisman came to Gunter with a warning: Hunt, Chrisman told him, intended to rob and kill Barabas, Craig, Gunter and Gunter’s wife, Margaret.
Alarmed but uncertain (“I didn’t know whether or not Chester had really said it”), Gunter went to Barabas and told him of Hunt’s plans. “The thing to do is just not associate with each other until you find out … the truth of the matter,” Gunter said he told Barabas.
But on Nov. 14, Barabas and Craig, armed with a sawed-off shotgun and a knife, invaded Hunt’s apartment at 127 Nedra Court.
Chrisman later related to Jeanne Domer, Barabas’ live-in girlfriend, what had happened, and Ms. Domer told the court: “They had Chester in the kitchen jerked up against the wall. (Chrisman) and Donna and Della were told to lie down on the front room floor. “Somehow or other, things got turned around. Chester got hold of a gun.”
What happened next hasn’t been clarified by the testimony, but it is clear that Barabas fired one round from the shotgun, which missed its mark, and he, in turn, was shot in the neck by Hunt.
Barabas and Craig tried to escape by way of the front door, but they apparently had trouble releasing the dead-bolt lock and Hunt had the drop on them.
Barabas and Craig were directed to lie on the floor, and both were bound. Enter Gordon Gunter.
Gunter had come to Chrisman’s apartment at 124 Nedra Court to see if Chrisman could work for him on the weekend, according to Gunter’s testimony.
Gunter was told that Chrisman was across the street at Hunt’s place. As he approached the Hunt residence, Gunter testified, he became alarmed. he saw the car driven by Barabas and Craig out front, then noticed bullet holes in the window and front door.
Afraid to return to his own pickup truck because someone was standing near it, Gunter said, he went around the apartment and attempted to hide in the alley. But Hunt and another young man found him there, and Hunt, armed, led Gunter into the house, he testified.
Once inside, Gunter was forced to take a position alongside Craig on the living room floor, and for some time, while Barabas lay wounded beside Craig, Hunt played games with his new captive, at one time directing Craig to inject battery acid into his veins.
Gunter said the needle was actually inserted into his hand, but Hunt had second thoughts, apparently, and confiscated the syringe and needle.
Hunt and Chrisman then left Barabas and Gunter in the custody of the women, both of whom were armed, Gunter said, and took Craig, wearing “thumb cuffs,” to the apartment of Barabas and Ms. Domer at 1625 Q St.
Ms. Domer, who said she was babysitting Priscilla Cooper’s 1-month-old infant at the time, testified she saw James “Spider” Craig through the peephole in her door, and when she opened the door, Craig came into the apartment with both Hunt and Chrisman, armed, behind him.
“Chester said he wanted me to take Eddie (Barabas) to the hospital,” Ms. Domer said. At about that time, a man came out of Ms. Domer’s bathroom and was pistol-whipped by one of the invaders in the apartment.
Ms. Domer then was blindfolded and driven, with the baby, to Hunt’s apartment, where she placed the infant on the couch. Also in the house at the time were Mrs. Hunt’s two children and Mrs. Bierer’s two children, who ranged in age from 2 to 9.
Craig took his place on the floor between Gunter and Barabas, who was still conscious despite the neck wound, and Ms. Domer was taken into a back bedroom, where she was forced to disrobe, molested and robbed of her jewelry by Hunt, he testified.
About 45 minutes after her arrival at the Hunt residence, ms. Domer testified, Barabas said something to Hunt and Hunt walked over to him and shot him. Gunter saw it, too. “He (Barabas) said, ‘You’re less than a man, ‘” Gunter related, and Hunt immediately aimed and fired, standing over the bound man about a foot away.
Barabas’ body went into convulsions, Gunter said, “but I assume he was dead. He was shot in the brain.” After a few minutes, Hunt went up to Barabas, kicked him in the head and said, “Die!” Gunter testified.
Hunt and Chrisman then tied up Craig and carried both men, Barabas and Craig, to the car, Gunter said. “They came back in and told Donna and Della to keep me on the floor, face down,” Gunter said.
“Chester said they’d be back to get me.” According to a conversation between Ms. Domer and Chrisman, which was related to the court by Ms. Domer, Chrisman was instructed by Hunt to shoot Craig with a shotgun after the two had driven Barabas and Craig to a spot on the Garden Highway.
“He tried to aim low so he wouldn’t hit him in the head,” Ms. Domer quoted Chrisman. “I think he might have said he closed his eyes. He said he didn’t have no choice.”
Craig lost his chin to the shotgun blast and the car was set afire. As Hunt returned to the residence where Donna Bierer and Della Hunt were still holding Gunter and Ms. Domer captive, Hunt said, according to Gunter, “We just burned up your two friends. They’re crispy critters.”
Was anything else said? Gunter was asked. “That I was next,” he said. Gunter said Hunt placed a pint of whiskey to his mouth and forced him to drink it. “He told me he was going to knock me out, put me in my truck and they were going to run the truck into the river with me in it,” Gunter said.
Instead, he testified, Hunt drove Gunter to his home near Hood, where Hunt kicked in the front door, forced Gunter’s wife, Margaret, to disrobe, then hit her twice in the mouth with his gun, Gunter related.
Hunt terrorized the couple by firing a round “through the window next to my head,” Gunter said. Three other shots were fired, one by Chrisman into the floor and two by Hunt, one into the water bed and one outside, Gunter testified.
Hunt and Chrisman eventually left the Gunters in their home near Hood and returned to the Hunt apartment, where Ms. Domer was still being held captive. Some 12 hours later, after Chrisman broke down crying upon hearing a television news account of the burning automobile, Ms. Domer was released.
Chrisman turned himself in to police at Sacramento Metropolitan Airport on Nov. 18, and on Nov. 21, Hunt was shot in the chin when he allegedly pulled a gun on a plainclothes officer outside a fried chicken stand on Stockton Boulevard.
Officers later found Mrs. Hunt, Mrs. Bierer and their four children in a nearby motel room.