‘Rockefeller’ to lawyer: I didn’t kill Calif. man

Published 11:12 am Wednesday, March 16, 2011

BOSTON (AP) — A man who claimed to be a member of the famous Rockefeller family insists he had nothing to do with the killing of a California man more than 25 years ago.

A Boston lawyer for Christian Carl Gerhartsreiter (GAYR’-hahrtz-ry-tur) said his client proclaimed his innocence Wednesday when he visited him in a Massachusetts prison.

Gerhartsreiter, a German national who came to the United States in the 1970s, assumed many identities, including Clark Rockefeller. He was convicted in Boston in 2009 in the kidnapping of his 7-year-old daughter. He is now serving a four- to five-year sentence.

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On Tuesday, Los Angeles prosecutors filed a murder charge against him in the disappearance of 27-year-old John Sohus.

Attorney Jeff Denner says Gerhartsreiter “is not afraid” of any new evidence in the case because he believes “it will prove his innocence.”