Condemned Killer Spared

Kevin Cooper, a convicted killer on California's death row, won a stay of execution Monday, just hours before he was to be executed.

Cooper, whose bid for clemency was denied by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, was scheduled to be executed at San Quentin prison just after midnight, Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2004, for the violent murders of four people more than 20 years ago.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals granted a request for an 11-judge panel to rehear Cooper's case.

Cooper, 46, was convicted in 1985 and sentenced to death for the murders of Douglas and Peggy Ryen, both 41, their 10-year-old daughter, Jessica, and Christopher Hughes, her 11-year-old friend.

His scheduled execution was the first death penalty case for Schwarzenegger.

Last-ditch federal appeals were denied over the weekend, even as two witnesses came forward with new information in the case. It was not clear, however, if the panel would hear the latest challenge to the case, which Cooper's attorneys filed Sunday.

The petition included a request to hear a statement from Chris Slonaker, who claims she saw two men come into a bar/restaurant the night of the murder.

Slonaker, who was having dinner with a girlfriend, noticed that the men had blond hair and were wearing blood-spattered T-shirts.

"I don't know what they're the murderers. I just know that I saw men with blood on them," said Slonaker on The Early Show Monday. "They were pretty deranged ... They were asked to leave the bar."

Cooper's lawyer, Lanny Davis, also told The Early Show that another witness, who says he was involved in the police investigation, claims that Cooper was set up -- and that blond hair samples found in the hand of one victim was the smoking gun in the prosecution's case.

Cooper has received support from death penalty opponents including Ruben "Hurricane" Carter, the Rev. Jesse Jackson, and actors Mike Farrell, Denzel Washington and Sean Penn.

Correspondent Erin Moriarty took a look back at the investigation last September. The following is her report for 48 Hours Investigates.

But it's a brutal case that still haunts this chiropractor from Temecula, Calif.

On the night of June 4, 1983, her daughter Peggy and husband Doug Ryen, both 41, were savagely hacked to death in the affluent California community of Chino Hills. Their 10-year-old daughter, Jessica, and an 11-year-old friend, Christopher Hughes, were also killed in the attack.

"It was a massacre. That's what it was, it was a massacre, the Chino massacre," says Mary.

Floyd Tidwell, then sheriff of San Bernardino County, described it as one of the most senseless crimes he has ever seen: "It's a very brutal murder, nothing ritualistic about it ... Just very brutal."

Howell's young grandson, Josh, was also found in the carnage. His throat was cut, but somehow he survived. He was rushed to Loma Linda Hospital.

"His head was all bandaged, and the little kid couldn't talk," says Mary. "I just felt like I died right there."

While Howell and a frightened community mourned, the search for the killers was on.

But then they got a break. While searching what authorities thought was a vacant house next door to the Ryen house, they found evidence that someone had been hiding out there. When they checked phone records, they discovered that two phone calls had been made by Kevin Cooper, a convicted burglar who had escaped from a minimum-security prison nearby only two days earlier.

"I was hunting him like everyone else," says police detective Paul Ingels, who joined the massive manhunt. "If I had seen him, I would have told him to freeze. If he had ran, I would have shot him."

Two months after the murders, Cooper was caught and arrested in Santa Barbara. "Everybody believed that he was the one who'd done it," says Ingels.

Although Cooper denied killing the Ryen family and Christopher Hughes, he was tried, convicted of first-degree murder. His punishment? He was sentenced to death.

That could have been the end of it, but Mary Howell doesn't believe Kevin Cooper killed her family: "It's hard for me to believe ... I want to know the truth. I want to know why my family was murdered. I want to know the answer."

"This is a very cold-blooded individual," says Kottmeier. "If he had to kill to escape, he would."

According to Kottmeier, Cooper - a burglar who had just escaped from the Chino Men's Prison - went to the Ryen home to steal a car to get out of the area. Police never found Cooper's fingerprints in that car or in the Ryen home, but they did find a shoeprint that matched the kind of shoes worn by prison inmates. They also found a small drop of blood that a state expert matched to Cooper, who was hiding out in a house a mere 140 yards away from the Ryen house.

"The evidence is strong," says Kottmeier, who believes that the right defendant was convicted in this case.

But outside the court, after the verdict, there were some doubts - and there are still doubts today.

In fact, remember the police detective, Paul Ingels, who once hunted Kevin Cooper down? He's now a private detective working for the convicted killer. Cooper, who has been on San Quentin's death row for 16 years, hired Ingels to help him win a new trial.

"I was astounded more than anybody else when some of the facts started to show that perhaps he wasn't guilty," says Ingels.

And that's how this 50-year-old detective and this then 87-year-old grandmother found themselves working on the same side.

"Whatever it takes, let's find the truth," says Mary. "Whatever it takes."

"I'm motivated to work on this case because I want to answer questions for her," says Ingels.

"It's hard for me to believe that one person did all that," says Mary.

"She will describe her daughter, Peggy, as a fighter," adds Ingels. "She was strong. She didn't think she'd just roll over."

And Doug Ryen was no pushover either. He was 6 feet tall, weighed 180 pounds and was an ex-Marine.

"How did one person chase all these people down," asks Ingels. But even more troubling to him was that the injuries were caused by at least three weapons: a hatchet, a knife and an icepick. These items were never found.

"I guess he was wearing, like, a utility belt of murder weapons when he entered the residence," says Ingels. "He's got two hands."

Kottmeier's explanation? "He's ambidextrous. He uses both hands equally."

"That's really a great philosophy except for one little fact," says Ingels. "There were three weapons. And I don't care how ambidextrous you are, you can't hold three. You've got two hands."

And with so many questions, Ingels says that Kevin Cooper's case deserves another look.

"There's a lot of evidence that says perhaps he didn't do it," says Ingels. "There's enough evidence that we need to pursue that evidence before we kill him, that's for sure."

Josh was stabbed several times, and according to Det. Paul Ingels, his throat was slit literally from ear to ear. He was barely alive and yet he hung on.

When Deputy Sheriff Dale Sharp rushed to the hospital to question Josh, the boy couldn't talk. Josh was told to squeeze the hand of the deputy sheriff if the answer to a question was yes.

As injured as he was, Josh answered Sharp's questions about the attack.
When asked how many people there were, Josh repeatedly gave the same answer.

"He responded that there were three people," says Sharp.

Josh gave even greater details to psychiatrist Lorna Forbes. From her notes: "Three Mexicans chased us around the house. Tried to fight them off. They came and hit me."

While he was at the Loma Linda University Medical Center, Josh told that story to at least five people. But even more significant was the fact that when Cooper's picture was broadcast on the news, Josh didn't recognize the man, says Mary.

While he recuperated, Josh still maintained there were three attackers. But a year and a half later, when Josh, with his grandmother at his side, was asked about the murders, he said he didn't remember three attackers.

"I can't really tell at night, because, you know, it could be anyone," says Josh, who admits he didn't remember much at all.

When Kottmeier questioned him, Josh remembered only seeing a shadow.

But Kottmeier, convinced that Cooper was the lone killer, believed Josh had been confused about three men who earlier in the day had come to his house looking for work.

So why didn't Kottmeier ask Josh directly: Did you see who killed your family?

"Because I didn't want him to ever feel that the conviction rested on his shoulders. Because we had such a strong case, we didn't need to put the burden on him. And I refused to do it," he says.

Josh is now a man, and he says he's tried to forget about what happened that night.

"He hurts. It wasn't easy to lose a mother, a father and a sister," says Mary.

But there's more missing in this case than Josh's memory. There's evidence the jury never saw.