Rockefeller Impostor Due in Court

Alhambra - A man who allegedly posed as a member of the Rockefeller family is due in court today for a hearing to determine if there is enough evidence to require him to stand trial for the 1985 slaying of a San Marino man whose body was discovered nearly a decade later.

Christian K. Gerhartsreiter, 50, is set to appear before Alhambra Superior Court Judge Jared Moses for a preliminary hearing that could take as long as two weeks.

Gerhartsreiter -- who had been in prison in Massachusetts for kidnapping his own daughter -- was returned to Los Angeles County last August, about 2 1/2 months after being charged with the murder of John Sohus.

The criminal complaint alleged that Gerhartsreiter killed the 27-year-old Sohus between Feb. 1, 1985, and Feb. 28, 1985, using a "blunt object." He also is suspected in the death of Sohus' wife, Linda, though he has not been charged with killing her.

At the time he rented a guesthouse from the couple, Gerhartsreiter allegedly went by Christopher Chichester. He disappeared after the couple went missing.

Sohus' body was found in May 1994 by a crew building a swimming pool in the backyard of the home in the 1900 block of Lorain Road, where he and his wife had lived.

In 2008, after calling Gerhartsreiter "a person of interest" in the couple's disappearance, sheriff's detectives returned to the property to search for other human remains but would not say what, if anything, they found.

Gerhartsreiter also reportedly had gone by Clark Rockefeller -- one of five aliases listed in the criminal complaint.

Detectives said his fingerprints identified him as Gerhartsreiter, a German who came to Connecticut in the 1970s as a student.

He faces up to 26 years to life in prison if convicted of first-degree murder.

Outside court following his arraignment last summer, Gerhartsreiter's attorneys said their client is maintaining his innocence.

"I was personally surprised because it's hard to understand with so much time what new evidence could have arisen," Boston-based defense lawyer Jeffrey A. Denner said of the murder charge.

Sandi Gibbons of the District Attorney's Office said then that prosecutors believe the evidence against Gerhartsreiter is "strong."