Killing Of Car Dealer Brings Guilty Verdict

ALBANY, Ore.

A jury has found Chris Soren Lange guilty of murder for killing John Robert Lucas, a Stayton car dealer, more than two years ago.

Lucas' widow, Kathy, several of the Lucas children, and Lange's mother, Lorraine Barrett, were in the courtroom when Linn County Circuit Judge Robert Gardner read the decision Friday.

Kathy Lucas and son Tim wept, as did Mrs. Barrett. Lange, sitting beside his lawyer, did not show any reaction to the verdict.

Jurors listened to testimony from 88 witnesses in eight days, and sat through nearly six hours of closing arguments.

The defense argued that Linn County investigators had focused their attention on the wrong man.

Prosecutor George Eder relied on testimony from a Salem car-wash owner and two federal prison inmates who said Lange told them he had killed Lucas, and on telephone records that showed dozens of calls from Lange to Lucas in the six weeks preceding Lucas' death.

The calls stopped abruptly the day Lucas last was seen alive.

Times staff, news services