Preliminary hearing postponed for Long Beach man charged with shooting 4-year-old during gang fight

A preliminary hearing was postponed Monday for a 46-year-old Long Beach man charged with attempted murder in the shooting of a 4-year-old innocent bystander during a gang fight last summer.
James Leland Landrum Sr., who is charged with five felony counts of attempted murder, is scheduled to return to the Long Beach Superior Court in April, court staff said Monday.

Landrum fled the state immediately after the July 22, 2009, shooting - which left 4-year-old Josue Hercules in a coma and fighting for his life for several days - and was detained at a U.S. Border Patrol checkpoint in Sierra Blanca, Texas two days later.

The defendant waived the extradition proceedings in Texas, allowing him to be returned to the Long Beach Superior Court last August. In addition to the five felony counts of attempted murder Landrum is also charged with the personal use of a firearm and that each shot was carried out to benefit Landrum's gang.

The 4-year-old was not the intended target when Landrum allegedly pulled out a gun and began firing, police and prosecutors said.

Witnesses told officers a man came to the neighborhood, in the 2100 block of Earl Avenue, at about 7 p.m. and got into an argument with a group of males and females.

The argument turned physical, and at one point the suspect pulled out a gun and opened fire, police said.

Josue was playing with his older sister and some other children when the shooting broke out. The kids tried to flee but the 4-year-old wasn't fast enough, and one of several rounds struck him in the back of the head.

The bullet slammed into the child's skull, near his neck, and skirted his brain, lodging behind his forehead and near his left eye, his mother said.

After several days of waiting and not knowing if he would pull through, the little boy awoke and appeared to suffer no lasting effects other than a massive scar that skirts the back of his skull.

The charge filed against Landrum alleges the shooting was a willful, deliberate and premeditated attempted murder of the child as well as four others who were in the line of fire that day. Each of the attempted murder charges carries a possible 25 years to life sentence, and if the defendant is convicted on all counts, he could face a lifetime in state prison.