LOS ANGELES, Jan. 19 (UPI) -- The attorney for a purported con man charged with murder asked the Los Angeles court to refer to his client by his alter ego, "Clark Rockefeller."
Christian Gerhartsreiter, a German-born man on trial for the 1985 murder of John Sohus, was a con man who assumed several identities over the course of his life, including a fabricated relation of the Rockefeller family, the Los Angeles Times said.
Attorney Brad Bailey told Superior Court Judge Jared Moses he knew Gerhartsreiter by the name Clark Rockefeller, and asked during the Wednesday hearing to continue to refer to his client by the alias.
The Times reports Moses denied the request, saying: "I honestly have never seen a circumstance where a defendant is referred to in court by one of his akas."
John Sohus was reported missing in 1985, but his dismembered remains were found in 1994 in the back yard of a house his mother owned. Gerhartsreiter rented a house from Sohus' mother for a time during the 1980's.
The remains were found in a fiberglass box, individually plastic wrapped. Fractures to Sohus' skull indicated he suffered at least three blows to the head with a heavy object.
