Kenneth Mount

Case record: Kenneth Mount

Background

Kenneth L. Mount was a reserve Bakersfield police officer who was convicted of masterminding three murders for money. He was associated with a Bakersfield crime group self-dubbed “The Corporation” that was implicated in three killings in the 1980s.

Investigation

Court reports said the four crime partners obtained Harry Bannister’s safe and split $52,000 among themselves. Scroggins told police that the ring relied on information gleaned by Mount through his police contacts to target victims.

The whole case surfaced in 1988 after Scroggins was arrested for robbing a Domino’s Pizza at 8200 Stockdale Highway. Scroggins essentially traded information on the killings for his freedom.

Arrest

The case later proceeded through convictions and jury determinations connected to three killings in the 1980s, including charges relating to a burglary.

Trial

Mount faced the death penalty but was sentenced to life without parole.

Mount was convicted of first-degree murder and a special circumstance of murder during the course of a burglary in the beating, throat-slashing and drowning death of Harry Bannister, 68, at a canal bank on Dec. 7, 1986. Harry Bannister provided amusement games and cigarette machines to businesses and carried large amounts of money with him.

Court reports said the four crime partners obtained Bannister’s safe and split $52,000 among themselves.

A jury acquitted Mount in the Dec. 13, 1983 bludgeon death of Robert DePriest, a 30-year-old cocaine dealer.

In the killing of pioneer Kern County farmer William “Bill” Destefani, 73, at his Quailwood home on Dec. 11, 1985, the jury hung up 6-6 on the charge that Mount killed him. The Destefani murder count against Mount was later dismissed by a judge.

Co-defendants and related testimony

Robert Scroggins testified under a grant of immunity about the killings and other crimes. Mount was convicted after one of his crime partners, Robert Scroggins, testified under a grant of immunity about the killings and other crimes.

The other two suspects were:

• Thomas David Porter, who was 46 in 1989, convicted of second-degree murder in Bannister’s death
• James M. Ludlow, who was 35 in 1989, convicted of second-degree murder in Bannister’s death

Porter and Ludlow claimed they gave their share to Scroggins, then 45.

Each of the defendants said Scroggins was a major player in the crimes and it was unfair that he went free while they went to prison for possibly the rest of their lives.

Ludlow also testified against Mount and Porter.

Kern County Superior Court Judge Arthur Wallace said even doing the right thing by testifying didn’t absolve him from paying the price for the crimes.

Kern County Superior Court Judge Gerald K. Davis agreed the disparity in sentencing was disquieting, but he added that didn’t mean Mount should get off.

Sentencing

Mount received a sentence of life without possibility of parole in July 1989 after one of his crime partners, Robert Scroggins, testified under a grant of immunity about the killings and other crimes.

Porter and Ludlow were each sentenced to 15 years to life in prison. Prison authorities reported Thursday that both remained in custody, with Porter at Avenal and Ludlow at Folsom.

Appeals

No appeal outcome is stated in the provided material.

Outcome

Kenneth L. Mount died June 3 in Antelope Valley Hospital after being transferred two months earlier from the California State Prison, Los Angeles County in Lancaster. His son confirmed his death.

His son was identified as Kenneth L. Mount Jr.

The provided material includes a quotation from Mount’s son: “He's more than paid back his debt to society.”

Aftermath

Mount was characterized as the reputed “mastermind” of the crime group “The Corporation,” implicated in three killings in the 1980s. The provided material also states that Mount died after spending two months in a heart attack-induced coma.