Driver testifies in Pomona barbershop killing

POMONA -- It was her first visit to Pomona, and Breeana Finley believed she had come to the city to look at apartments with her boyfriend and another man.

Instead, the Los Angeles woman said she unwittingly became a getaway driver after her two companions allegedly robbed a barber and shot him to death at a Holt Avenue barbershop.

That was Finley's testimony this afternoon, when she took the witness stand in the Pomona Superior Court murder trial of two men accused of killing 46-year-old Larry Hammett of Ontario, a longtime barber at Groom Time.

Omari Ali, 21, and Keyon Rasheed Hill, 20, are accused of robbing Hammett of money and marijuana on July 27, 2008, and shooting him to death when he tried to resist.

Clad in blue jail scrubs, Finley testified Tuesday that she drove to Pomona with her boyfriend Ali and Hill, who is from the Pomona area, to look for an apartment to share with Ali, who she had dated for six years.

Finley had discovered three weeks earlier that she was pregnant, and she wanted to move out of her aunt's home in the West Adams district of Los Angeles before the child was born, she testified.

After visiting an apartment building in Pomona, Hill told her at about 11 a.m. to stop at Groom Time, where he said he wanted to buy marijuana, Finley testified.

Hill directed Finley along Holt and told her to turn into the alley that runs behind Groom Time. Finley testified that she parked in the alley and read a book while Ali and Hill went into the barbershop.

Soon after, Finley said she heard three to four gunshots and saw people run out. Ali and Hill also ran out, with Hill carrying a black bag and Ali holding a white cloth.

After the men got to the car, Hill asked Finley to pop her trunk, and he put the bag in the trunk, Finley testified.

After the shooting, Finley claims she didn't have a detailed discussion with the two men about what happened in the barbershop, saying only that they talked about how "there was a shooting."

Finley said that she knew nothing about a robbery and felt she was innocent.

She was initially charged with murder along with Ali and Hill, and faced life in prison. Though she maintained her innocence today, Finley said she took a plea bargain for 11 years rather than face a life prison sentence.

Other witnesses today included a woman who went to the barbershop the day of Hammett's death to see her boyfriend, who worked as a barber at Groom Time.

The woman said that shortly after she arrived, Ali and a man she didn't recognize went into a backroom office at the barbershop with Hammett.

She said she heard sounds of a struggle inside and heard Hammett repeatedly scream, "Folks." She and other people in the barbershop rushed to help Hammett.

She said she soon heard the sound of gunshots from behind the office door.

"He had to empty the whole clip," the woman testified. "There were so many shots going on."

After the shots were fired, the woman said she hid in a bathroom only feet from the office.

She said she heard the sound of bags rustling in the office, as if the alleged robbers were going though items, and then she heard one of them say, "Come on. Hurry up."

She said that after she heard the men leave through the barbershop's back door she tended to Hammett, who was lying face-down in the office.

Hammett was "fighting for his life and trying to breathe," the woman testified, and she turned him onto his back and performed CPR until paramedics and police arrived.

"His pants pockets was turned out like someone was going through it," the woman said.

Ali was arrested in Los Angeles at 6:30 p.m. the day of the shooting, and a small green scale was found in his pocket along with "green leafy flakes" that smelled like marijuana, Los Angeles police officer Brian Thayer testified today. Thayer said Ali also gave a false name of Clarence Clark.

Hammett's wife of about 15 years, Annette Joseph, was shown the scale in court during her testimony today.

She said she was "positive" the scale belonged to Hammett, and she remembered seeing at home before Hammett was killed.

"Last time I saw it it was in my kitchen," Joseph said.