Sunset Beach Murder, Torture Case Rattled By Misconduct Sanctions

SUNSET BEACH, CA — Continuing the fallout from the questionable use of jailhouse informants, a judge Tuesday punished Orange County prosecutors for misconduct in the case of a man charged with a 1988 murder in Sunset Beach, stripping a special circumstance allegation of torture from the case and prohibiting evidence of alleged incriminating statements the defendants made while in custody.

The ruling from San Diego County Superior Court Judge Daniel B. Goldstein singled out Orange County Superior Court Judge Ebrahim Baytieh, who prosecuted the case against Paul Gentile Smith, for making a "falsified statement" in the evidentiary hearing.

The ruling came down after weeks of hearings last year stemming from the informant scandal that originated in the case against Scott Dekraai, the worst mass killer in Orange County history.

Goldstein praised Senior Deputy District Attorney Seton Hunt and the current District Attorney's Office for its "dedication to search for the truth" in the misconduct allegations. Goldstein rejected a request from Smith's attorney, Scott Sanders of the Orange County Public Defender's Office, to dismiss the case entirely.

Smith will be retried for the 1988 killing of 29-year-old Robert Haugen. The case was reassigned to Goldstein because of the governmental misconduct allegations against Baytieh.

The evidentiary hearings in the Smith case began in April and carried on intermittently through the summer before closing arguments in December.