Homicide: July 2009 Archives

Jesus Sedillo smiled and blew kisses at his family in the Long Beach courtroom before heading into the lock-up to begin the rest of his life in prison - without the possibility of ever getting out. He was sentenced today for the murders of Manuel Lopez, 17, of Wilmington on Sept. 23, 2006, in a car-to-pedestrian shooting at Bayview Avenue and F Street and Richard Romero, 18, of Wilmington, about six weeks later.

During the last crime, Sedillo wore a wolf mask as he shot from his car into the vehicle carrying Romero, his cousin Edward Villegas and his sister, Jessica Romero, near Pacific Coast Highway and Broad Avenue.

Full story will be up later on a contentious hearing on Sedillo's new trial motion and Romero's mother's tearful courtroom statement 

The law is pretty clear on what the difference is between first and second-degree murder. Well, clear to legal scholars, anyway. But even then, how that law is interpreted and applied to a set of facts is quite a subjective process. Getting 12 jurors to agree during that process can often be the backbone of a murder trial.

In closing arguments Tuesday in the capital murder trial for Miguel Magallon, Deputy District Attorney Darren Levine gave one of the clearest analogies I've ever heard in explaining the difference. Everyday, he said, when he leaves his office at the Civic Center, he must decide whether to walk a half-block up to the crosswalk, then a half-block back ... or merely hustle across several lanes of traffic. Complicating the decision is that police cars often park at a nearby Metro station.

Levine said when he pauses, looks toward the police cars to see if any cops are around, then proceeds across - he is guilty of first-degree jaywalking. It was willful, deliberate and premeditated. But when he simply just heads across without a thought to the consequences - even for a brief millisecond - that is second-degree jaywalking.

While Magallon's defense attorney, Victor Salerno, said the slaying of Los Angeles Police Capt. Michael Sparkes on Aug. 10, 2004, was a "classic case" of second-degree murder, Levine used the same term to argue that the deadly confrontation on the street near Carson was first-degree murder. In the end, it's up to the jury.

By Denise Nix
Staff Writer
In murdering his mistress, who he believed was pregnant, in her Hawthorne apartment, Ricky Madison would stop "for no one or nothing," a judge said Friday before sentencing Madison to die.
As Judge James Dabney told Madison of his fate, the robust and shackled 49-year-old rocked gently in his chair, causing a soft clink.
Otherwise, Madison showed no reaction to his punishment for killing Aysha Sly, 27, who was stabbed 172 times in her apartment in the 12200 block of Manor Drive on Dec. 5, 2006.
But for the shackles and Dabney's quick and clear voice as he read from the death warrant he would later sign, the Airport Courthouse courtroom was still and quiet.
Outside of court, Sly's mother described feeling a release of relief as Dabney ordered Madison to death row.
"He got what he deserved," said Rosalind James.

Back in 2007, when Phillip Michael Dorsett went on trial for the June 16, 2005, shooting death of Jesse Fujino, 18, in Inglewood, it struck us as a strange case of a seemingly rich kid from The Hill who found a life of crime down below. I don't remember but the specifics of why, but I do remember there being a lot of fall-out from Dorsett's family after we ran an article about his conviction (after the jump).

Last month, the 2nd District Court of Appeal upheld Dorsett's second-degree murder conviction, but said the prosecutor did not present enough evidence to support the allegation he committed the murder for the benefit of a criminal street gang. The appellate court said he could not be re-tried on the allegations because doing so would be double-jeopardy. The end result, though, doesn't change things much as far as Dorsett's 40 years to life in prison sentence goes.

Aysha Sly's family was in Judge James Dabney's Airport Courthouse courtroom this morning awaiting to hear what he would do with Ricky Madison - send him to death row or order to spend the rest of his life in prison without parole for Sly's Dec. 5, 2006, violent death in Hawthorne. But Madison's attorney called in sick, so the whole thing got put over until Friday, July 17. I plan to return again...

To read more about the case, follow the jump.