Man accused of killing Oceano activist visited murder victim’s home, investigators say
The man accused of killing 90-year-old Oceano activist Lawrence “Larry” Bross visited the victim’s home about a week before his death and had a tool similar to the weapon used in Bross’s murder, according to investigators.
The investigators took the stand Thursday in San Luis Obispo Superior Court during a preliminary hearing for murder defendant David James Krause.
Bross, a former history teacher and community activist, was found dead in his residence in the 1400 block of Strand Way on Jan. 24, 2019.
Krause, 41, was arrested in April and charged with Bross’s murder, along with criminal enhancements that he used a deadly weapon in the act and committing the crime after convictions of previous serious felonies. The Grover Beach man has pleaded not guilty.
“Krause was in the area with the type of weapon used during the (murder),” Deputy District Attorney Julie Antos said Thursday.
Antos also cited DNA evidence collected from Krause’s left shoe that match Bross’s blood.
Superior Court Judge Tim Covello ruled Thursday that sufficient evidence was presented to proceed to trial.
Murder defendant visited victim’s home, investigators say
San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office investigators testified Thursday morning that Krause assisted his wife Irene in cleaning Bross’s home in Oceano about a week before Bross was killed — the first time the two men had ever met.
Irene Krause allegedly told investigators that she had cleaned Bross’s home multiple times alone before she brought along her husband, who had been recently released from prison before moving into their Grover Beach home.
David Krause was convicted of committing residential burglaries in 2016 and 1998, according to the San Luis Obispo County District Attorney’s Office’s filing charges.
While the Krauses were at Bross’s house for the cleaning, Irene Krause told Sheriff’s Office Deputy Eleotte Coyes, that the two men had a “side conversation.”
“She didn’t describe or know what the conversation entailed,” Coyes testified during cross examination from defense attorney Harold Mesick.
A couple of days later, Irene Krause told her husband to leave their home, Sheriff’s Office Det. Gower Slane said on the witness stand.
“(David Krause) advised that he’d been asked to leave and kicked out by his wife due to his drug habits,” Slane testified.
Days after his first encounter with Bross, Krause encountered the elderly man on the beach not far from Bross’s home, the defendant allegedly told a Sheriff’s Office investigator.
Krause told Sheriff’s Office investigators that, in both of his encounters with Bross, they talked about their mutual interest in art, Slane said.
“(Krause) said they spoke about art again (on the beach),” Slane said. “The defendant is an artist himself.”
Although Krause acknowledged meeting Bross two times, Slane testified, the suspect denied going to Bross’s house after meeting him the second time on the beach.
Did Grover Beach man have tool similar to one used to kill activist?
After David Krause’s wife kicked him out, he stayed with a friend in a mobile home in Grover Beach for a few days, Coyes said Irene Krause told him.
Irene Krause later dropped off a backpack for her husband with personal items that included a tool with a hammer head on one end and a bladed axe on the other that appeared to be a drywall or roofing hammer, investigators said she told the Sheriff’s Office.
Coyes said Krause later told him that, “If (Bross) was killed with an ax or hammer, she would know who did it.”
Bross’s injuries included a cracked skull, black eyes and cuts on the top of his head, according to John McDaniel, a Sheriff’s Officer coroner sergeant.
The cause of death was “multiple chop force” traumatic injuries, McDaniel testified.
Slane said Krause told him in March 2019 that he’d thrown the hammer-like tool and a folding pocket knife into a garbage can off Atlantic City Drive in Grover Beach prior to meeting Bross on the beach.
That was because Krause was on parole and not allowed to possess weapons, Slane said the defendant told him.
During Mesick’s cross-examination, Slane said he was aware that Bross’s daughter was concerned about her father’s friendliness with homeless people and aware he’d invite transients into his home. She told Bross “to stop,” Mesick said.
Slane acknowledged during questioning that another man, nicknamed Comanche, had been at Bross’s home the day the Oceano resident died.
The detective said investigators kept an open mind to leads and potential suspects before arresting Krause.
Authorities discovered a shoe print similar to those left by the Vans-like shoes Krause was wearing on Bross’s property around the time of the homicide, according to evidence presented during the preliminary hearing.
Mesick asked Sheriff’s Office Deputy Chris Langston if the black shoes collected into evidence had an artistic drawing of a wolf on them, but Langston couldn’t recall seeing a drawing.
Krause is next scheduled to appear in Superior Court on Nov. 2 for a second arraignment.
This story was originally published October 21, 2021 at 4:10 PM.
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