LOS ANGELES, Jan. 25 (UPI) -- A California judge has ruled the impostor who claimed to be part of the wealthy and powerful Rockefeller clan can be tried for the 1985 killing of his landlord.
Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter is to be arraigned Feb. 9 in Los Angeles County for allegedly killing John Sohus, 26, of San Marino, the Los Angeles Times reported. Superior Court Judge Jared Moses on Tuesday ordered him to remain in custody in lieu of $10 million bail.
Lawyer Jeffrey Denner said his client expects to be acquitted.
"He's always maintained his innocence," Denner said. "At the end of the day he believes he will be vindicated."
Gerhartsreiter, 50, came to the United States as an 18-year-old German exchange student in 1979. He lived in California under the name Christopher Chichester in the early 1980s, occupying a guest house on a San Marino property belonging to John and Linda Sohus.
The couple disappeared in 1985 with Chichester saying they were in Europe. John Sohus' remains were found buried in the back yard in 1994, while his wife is still missing.
Gerhartsreiter, who authorities say used several aliases, including Clark Rockefeller, became a suspect in the case after he was arrested in 2008 for kidnapping the daughter he fathered during a brief marriage to a Boston woman while posing as a Rockefeller.
A witness during the preliminary hearing testified Gerhartsreiter tried to sell him a rug in 1985, only to quickly roll it up and take it away when blood stains were pointed out. Investigators said Sohus' skull was wrapped in a plastic bag with a University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee logo in use when Gerhartsreiter was a student there.
