SAN FRANCISCO -- Michael 'Bear' Carson, a self-proclaimed mystic who stabbed and bludgeoned to death a woman he considered a witch, lost his appeal to the California Supreme Court for a reversal of his murder conviction.
The tribunal Wednesday let his conviction stand but did not act on an appeal by Carson's wife, Suzan, who also claims to be a mystic and was convicted in the same case.
They were convicted in the 1981 murder of their 23-year-old San Francisco roommate, Keryn Barnes. They believed Barnes was draining Suzan Carson's life away through witchcraft and had to be killed as an act of self-defense.
Michael Carson was sentenced to 26 years to life in prison. Suzan Carson was sentenced to 25 years to life.
In their appeals, they argued the edited tape of their confession should have been excluded from the trial and that last-minute changes were made in jury instructions. A state appeals court recently also upheld their convictions.
The Carsons also were convicted of murder in Sonoma County in the 1983 death of Jon Charles Hillyar. They also are charged in Humboldt County in the 1982 killing of Clark Stephens.
In 1983, the Carsons admitted the Barnes killing, as well as two others, in a bizarre five-hour interview with two news reporters. The couple was in Sonoma County jail at the time of the interviews, awaiting trial in the Hillyar case.
They requested the interviews to promote their religious philosophy and claimed they were authorized under their interpretation of Islamic law to kill witches.
Michael Carson said he clubbed Barnes with a frying pan, then stabbed her with a kitchen knife at the direction of his wife.
The Carsons were described as a nomadic couple who lived off and on in the Haight-Ashbury section of San Francisco, once known for its counterculture lifestyles.
Suzan Carson told reporters in the 1983 interview she received a message from God during a thunderstorm in Oxnard indicating God wanted Barnes killed.
