Crime & Safety

Former Long Beach Resident's Conviction Upheld for Murdering Ex- Girlfriend's Husband

By City News Service

A state appeals court panel Thursday upheld a former Long Beach resident's murder conviction for the 1985 stabbing death of his ex-girlfriend's husband in Torrance.

The three-justice panel from California's 2nd District Court of Appeal rejected the defense's contention that there was insufficient evidence to support his first-degree murder conviction for the Dec. 9, 1985, attack on Archie McFarland Jr., and that the 25-year delay in charging him violated his due process rights.

Find out what's happening in Long Beachwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Kulcsar was found guilty in June 2011 of stabbing the 58-year-old victim, who was stabbed five times in the driveway of his home on 184th Street about 5 a.m. while leaving for work.

The Torrance Superior Court jury found that Kulcsar had personally used a deadly weapon during the attack.

Find out what's happening in Long Beachwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Kulcsar had been romantically involved with McFarland's wife, who had returned to her husband before he was killed.

She resumed her relationship with Kulcsar sometime after her husband's killing and was seeing him again until he was arrested in April 2010 in connection with her husband's murder, according to the appellate court panel's 34-page ruling.

Associate Justice Thomas L. Willhite Jr., writing on behalf of the panel, said a review of the record “leads us to conclude that the evidence, although circumstantial, was more than sufficient to support defendant's conviction.”

The appellate court panel noted that the evidence showed Kulcsar was “both distraught and angry that Mary Ann moved back in with Archie, and that he had made several threats to Mary Ann and/or Archie,” and that Kulcsar was ``the only person who had a motive to kill Archie.''

When Torrance police asked Long Beach officers to go to the defendant's apartment, he initially said he not left home. After police checked his Volkswagen and determined the engine was warm, he changed his story to say he had driven toward his brother's house that morning and then realized he had to go back to get his laundry.

Kulcsar gave various explanations to police about what he was doing that morning that “were inconsistent not only with each other, but also with the evidence,” Willhite wrote on behalf of the panel.

The justices also found that Kulcsar had “failed to show any prejudice caused by the pre-arrest delay.”

He was released from custody two days after the killing after the District Attorney's Office informed a Torrance police detective that it would not be filing a case against Kulcsar. He was 59 at the time of his April 2010 arrest after police re-opened the case and re-interviewed him.

Kulcsar was sentenced in January 2012 to 26 years to life in state prison.


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

To request removal of your name from an arrest report, submit these required items to arrestreports@patch.com.