■volume Ixv, number 72
■Wednesday, february 14, 1973
Daily Cg§ Trojan
university of southern californi< los angeles, California
Rapist of four coeds gets 38-year-to-life sentence
By Mary Ann Galante
campus city editor
Juan Jose Zapata, recently found guilty of 16 felony counts including the rape of four USC coeds, was sentenced Tuesday to 38 years to life in the state prison.
Mark Overland, Zapata’s attorney, requested and was denied a motion for a new trial. However, Overland said the decision would be appealed on a number of grounds.
Zapata was sentenced for one charge of rape; one charge of armed robbery; and four charges of burglary, tw o of them committed while Zapata was armed with deadly weapons.
In announcing the sentence, Judge William Caldecott denied a plea for probation and said the terms are to run consecutively. Caldecott added that after the term prescribed by law,
10	years, Zapata’s case will be reviewed by the Department of Corrections.
Gasps could be heard in the courtroom when the consecutive sentence announcement was made. Prosecuting attorneys had predicted there wTas “no way” the sentences would be consecutive.
Throughout the reading of the verdict Zapata remained passive, showing little emotion. Charles Page, former jury foreman commented, “He looked like that during most of the trial—just like he was watching TV.”
Both prosecuting and defense attorneys in the case agree there is little chance of Zapata being freed before 38 years. “There will be appeals made to the appellate court and possibly the State Supreme Court,” said James E. Heins, one of two prosecuting attorneys in the case. Heins added, “I personally don’t think there’s any way under the sun Zapata’s going to get off.”
Overland agreed with Heins, saying, “The parole board will never fix his (Zapata’s) term at anything less than life.”
Zapata was convicted of 16 felony counts, including burglary, robbery, sex perversion, rape, assault, attempted kidnapping and attempted robbery. Zapata, 24, was acquitted on three charges and received a hung jury verdict on a fourth count. The crimes were committed between January and December, 1971.
Throughout Tuesday’s sentencing, Overland cited a number of reasons for a new trial that presumably will be the basis for appeals made to the appellate court.
Overland cited the court’s methods of selecting the jury panel as a prime reason for an appeal. “People were called from all over Los Angeles county, while the crimes were committed only in the central district. The concentration of minority groups is much greater in downtown L.A.’s central district.”
Another strong reason for appealing the case cited by Overland was denial of a severance motion early in the trial.
“The number of charges against Zapata gave him two and a half strikes against him before he came to bat. I have no doubt if the charges had been tried separately, Zapata would have been acquitted of all of them.”
Overland also cited the following reasons for an appeal:
•	The court’s denial of more preemptory challenges in jury selection. Overland explained he ordinarily would be allowed to dismiss 10 jurors in a case. When he requested
additional preemptory challenges, the request was denied.
•	The prosecution allegedly informed some witnesses they didn’t have to speak with the defense.
The law requires Zapata serve two-thirds ofthe minimum sentence plus five additional years for being armed before he is eligible for parole. Asked what Zapata probably will serve, William Gustafson, prosecuting attorney, said, “He’ll probably do the minimum 38 years.”
Gustafson explained the unusually long sentence probably is a result of Zapata’s being an illegal alien. “He was tried on a charge of receiving stolen property before and was given a suspended sentence on the condition that he return to Mexico and never reenter the United States.”
During the trial, evidence was submitted to prove Zapata reentered the United States within days of being deported. “The only way to make a sentence effective in this case was to impose consecutive sentences.” Zapata now faces federal charges of obstructing mail delivery and assault on a mail carrier. One of the rapes was committed against a mail deliverer on her morning route.
Gerontology panel says young, old have lot in common
DT photo by Michael Sedano
BUCKMINSTER FULLER
Black History Week encounters attendance, organizational woes
of the Watts Prophets and others failed to appear for a scheduled poetry reading in Edison Auditorium. Eight students were in the audience when the program was cancelled.
A morning lecture by black mayoral candidate Malbour Watson took place as scheduled, also in Edison Auditorium, but was attended by only 15 persons.
Gomez could not account for the disappointing turnouts. She feels that publicity for the events had been adequate. She hoped that the poetry program would be rescheduled for later in the semester.
An evening program on black history featuring Rev. A1 Dortch, executive director of Operation Breadbasket West, was held last night.
A luncheon Thursday in Commons Lounge, honoring those who have made significant contributions to the Black History Week program in Los Angeles County, is the only remaining event in the week’s activities. President John Hubbard will speak at the luncheon.
The status of the remainder of Black History Week was left in doubt Tuesday due to sparse attendance at the day’s programs and failure to obtain additional security for an exhibit in the Student Activities Center.
Deidre Gomez, one of the organizers of the Week's activities, said that an exhibit on Black art, sports, drama, and opera might be closed dow n Tuesday because she could not arrange for overnight officers from Campus Security.
“There are some things in ther^ I would rather not see left alone,” she said. Most ofthe exhibit was on three-day loan from the Athletic Department.
A spokesman for Campus Security, w ho said he had not been contacted by Gomez, said that the regular foot patrols would be in the Student Activities Center area throughout the night. However, he added that there is not enough personnel to keep a man in the building.
One of the week s programs was cancelled yesterday when members
By Brian Robinette
staff writer
Young people may not know it yet, but they may have more in common with the elderly than they may think.
This idea typified the general mood as the four-day convocation dedicating the new Ethel Percy Andrus Gerontology Center yesterday swung into its second day with a panel discussion that included Buckminster Fuller, nationally prominent philosopher-author.
The panel presentation, “Changing Images of Aging,” stressed the present need for equal rights and increased benefits for the nation’s elderly.
“Both young and old are struggling for equality with the middle age,” said Bernice Neugarten, a panel member and gerontologist at the University of Chicago.
“If we are engaged in a struggle for age rights, then the result will be a greater freedom for young and old.”
With 10% ofthe nation’s population listed as being 65-years and over, Neugarten claimed that old attitudes and concepts concerning old people are rapidly being disspelled.
“The signs are that we are moving to a society where age is irrelevant as a dimension of social organization,” she said. “Our ideas are changing; if Justice (William O.) Douglas had married a young girl now rather than six years ago, there would not be nearly as much controversy as then.”
Buckminster Fuller, 77, who was described by moderator and KNBC-TV news correspondent Bob Abernathy as, “a folk hero among the young people today,” spoke spontaneously to the gathering about a myriad of subjects.
Fullertold ofthe rising population of the world, and the reasons why it is rapidly increasing.
“Those who used to die,” he said, “are not dying anymore.”
Fuller, tongue-in-cheek, offered his own theory regarding the relationship between the amount of electricity consumed and the current population increase.
“As the kilowatts go up, the birthrate goes down,” he said.
Fuller also spoke of the relationship between the earth (“this speck of dust inhabited by three-and-one-half million specks”) and
the billions of stars in the universe.
“Personally, I would be terribly concerned if Mr. Nixon were controlling the whole universe,” he said.
In addition to Fuller and Neugarten, the panel also included John Brademas, majority floor whip of the U.S. House of Representatives and is considered to be the fourth most-powerful member of the House.
Brademas emphasized what he felt was a need for federal legislation providing for a standardized approach in caring for the nation's aged.
“The time has come for us to develop a national policy for the aged,” said Brademas. “If we don't have a national policy by 1973. then we should have one by the year 2.000.”
Brademas then outlined what such a bill would ideally entail. Provisions should be made, he said, for adequate retirement income for the aging, sufficient health care, leisure time activity centers, library programs. more economical means of transportation and proper job training and employment opportunities.
Brademas attacked President Nixon’s current attitude concerning the elderly, citing three bills which the President vetoed last fall.
The first, the Compulsory Older American Service Bill, was sponsored by Brademas in the House and by Thomas Eagleton (D-Mo.) in the Senate. The second would have created a national institute of the aging, while the third, the Rehabilitation Act, would have continued federal assistance to the handicapped, said Brademas.
Brademas told the audience, w hich consistented mainly of elderly people, that the President vetoed the bills despite the fact that all three were passed unanimously by both houses.
“This is indicative of the (President’s determined opposition to resist the efforts of an elected Congress to assist the aged,” he said “The President is now asserting that he is forced to pick and choose among those programs.”
The Indiana congressman finally called for mutual cooperation between gerontology scientists and other researchers, and Congress to help formulate a national health policy.