KILLER SENTENCED TO DEATH : JUDGE ACCEPTS JURY'S 1993 RECOMMENDATION IN MURDER OF VALENCIA MAN.

Byline: Jeannette DeSantis Daily News Staff Writer

His head cocked back defiantly, Scott Forrest Collins, a 26-year-old convicted murderer, was sentenced to death Thursday for killing a Valencia father, three years after a jury recommended that he be executed for the crime.

After reviewing 65 volumes of transcripts from the 1993 trial, Van Nuys Superior Court Judge Howard Schwab handed down the sentence, validating a jury's 1993 recommendation that Collins die for kidnapping and murdering Fred Rose, 41, during a lunch break from his job as a construction superintendent in Lancaster.

``This was a senseless, vicious murder,'' Schwab said. ``A man was robbed and killed in a totally cold-blooded manner . . . exactly one month to the day that Mr. Collins was released from prison.''

The Palmdale parolee kidnapped Rose on Jan. 23, 1992, forced him to withdraw cash from an automated teller machine in Northridge, then dumped Rose with a gunshot wound to the back of his head on railroad tracks in North Hollywood.

The trial judge, Leon Kaplan, refused to accept the jury's recommendation and granted Collins a second penalty phase with a new panel - tantamount to a new trial - on grounds that jurors acted improperly when they used a protractor and string during deliberations to show the trajectory of the bullet that killed Rose.

At that time, Kaplan recused himself from the case, citing ongoing personal attacks by Deputy District Attorney Lea Purwin D'Agostino, who accused Kaplan of opposing capital punishment.

Kaplan was targeted by a failed recall attempt and was ultimately transferred to a civil court.

The Los Angeles District Attorney's Office appealed to the 2nd District Court of Appeal, which reinstated the death penalty. Last month, Collins took his case to the state Supreme Court, which declined to hear the case.

Little of the legal wrangling on his behalf seemed to phase Collins at his sentencing Thursday.

Before the hearing, with his tattooed arms still handcuffed, Collins turned his shaved head, smiled and winked at his mother in the audience.

Defense attorney Bruce C. Hill said later the unique circumstances of the case provide much legal fodder for an appeal.

``Clearly the problem with the trial judge has never occurred before - in the entire country - as far as I know,'' Hill said, adding that he will not represent Collins during his automatic appeal to the sentence.

``Quite honestly, there are some legitimate issues that have to be redressed, and today was a steppingstone to get an ultimate resolution.

``But I wanted to make the point that I, and many others, regard Mr. Collins as a human being,'' he said. ``He is somebody I have developed a relationship with and (the imposition of the death penalty) is a tragedy for family on the other side as well.''

Prosecutor D'Agostino said Collins was a selfish, unfeeling criminal who ripped apart a loving family for the sake of greed.