Sentenced to death twice, Visalia murderer dies in prison. But not how courts intended

A man whose own father once advocated for his death and was convicted of three killings has died in prison Friday.

Robert Acremant — on death row in Oregon since 2002 after killing a Visalia man and two women in Oregon — died of natural causes, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation spokeswoman Vicky Waters.

Acremant, 50, had been in custody of the Oregon Department of Corrections.

A judge in Oregon sentenced Acremant to death for the murder of two women in Medford back in 1995. Acremant was then extradited to Tulare County, where a Visalia judge in 2002 handed him a second death sentence for the murder of Scott George, of Visalia.

George was the first of Acremant’s victims. According to Bee archives, a jury found Acremant guilty of first-degree murder, burglary and attempted robbery. In a taped interview, Acremant confessed to shooting George five times. Acremant was arrested at a Stockton hotel in December 1995.

Acremant’s father, Ken Acremant, spoke out in court against his own son and insinuated that the only punishment for his son’s crimes was death.

“All I can think about is the right you took away from the people you killed,” Ken Acremant said, according to The Bee archives. “Your mother had a dagger stabbed in her heart when she found out.”

The sister of George, Wendy Isbell, also spoke and stated she wanted justice for her brother. “Make sure that he’s put to death as quickly as possible,” Isbell said in 2002.

Acremant was sent away to Oregon as he waited for his appeals. He had been serving the California death sentence at the time of his death. According to archives, the two women Acremant killed in Oregon owned a property management company and Acremant had sought to scam them of $50,000.

Before the convictions, Acremant had worked as an “efficiency expert” for a California trucking company. He had a master’s degree and did not have a criminal record before the murders, according to archives.

During Acremant’s 2002 trial in Tulare County, a candidate for President Donald Trump’s then-reality TV show “The Apprentice” testified against Acremant. She was Alla Wartenberg, an immigrant from the Soviet Union, according to archives.

Wartenberg, then known as Alla Kosova, was once a stripper and testified Acremant had been a frequent customer and one time pulled a gun on her in her car. She testified that Acremant was “very upset with me” because he thought she only used him for money.

That encounter took place around the time of the Visalia murder.

According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the average time spent on death row before execution is approximately 16 years because of the growing pressure on states to ensure they are positively executing a truly guilty individual.

This story was originally published October 26, 2018 at 8:39 PM.