A Highland man was convicted Thursday, Feb. 23, of two rapes that occurred more than two decades ago in south Orange County despite claims by his defense attorney that the crimes were actually carried out by his twin brother.
An Orange County Superior Court jury deliberated for around four hours before finding Kevin Konther guilty of raping a 9-year-old girl in Lake Forest in 1995 and a 32-year-old woman in Mission Viejo in 1998 as well as committing lewd acts on a girlfriend’s daughter when she was 8 or 9 years old at the couple’s homes in Huntington Beach and Highland.
Because they are twins, DNA from the rapes originally was tied to both Konthers. But a secretly recorded conversation between the brothers while they were in police custody that a prosecutor argued essentially served as a confession by Kevin Konther, now 57 years old, led investigators to identify him as the rapist.
“This case is about a guilty man who knew exactly what he did in evading detection for horrendous crimes 25-plus years ago,” Deputy District Attorney Juliet Oliver said during her closing arguments on Wednesday in a Santa Ana courtroom. “He knew exactly what he was guilty of, and he knew exactly why he was being arrested.”
During the recorded conversation, Kevin Konther repeatedly apologized to his angry and confused brother, at one point telling him “I’m a criminal in my past. I have serious issues. Now I’ve got to pay for it and I don’t want to.”
“It’s my, my bad past caught up to me … my stupidity … my wrongdoing,” Konther told his brother at another point. “My chemical imbalance in my brain. I’ve been fighting that demon for a long time. I just hate women, that’s my problem.”
Konther referenced wanting to flee to Mexico or Canada during the conversation, the prosecutor said.
Deputy Public Defender Jessica Ann Sweeny told jurors that Konther was covering for his brother, having decided to be the one to take the blame. The defense attorney…
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