PASADENA >> Two separate homicide cases stemming from a single tragic Christmas Day in Pasadena that left three innocent bystanders dead in 2012 are nearing conclusion.
Trial is ongoing in Los Angeles Superior Court for two gang members accused of fatally shooting 49-year-old civilian sheriff’s employee and community youth coach Victor McClinton. And another man is scheduled to be sentenced Monday in Pasadena Superior Court for crashing into a minivan while fleeing police, killing two members of a family visiting the area for the holidays.
In the McClinton case, prosecutors allege Bloods gang members Larry Darnell Bishop, 23, of Chino and Jerron Donald Harris, 28, of Pasadena, gunned down Victor McClinton of Pasadena with an errant bullet intended for a rival gang member on Christmas morning, 2012.
Their ongoing trial for murder with special circumstances, along with additional charges, continues Monday in Los Angeles Superior Court.
It is the second trial for the two suspects. A previous trial ended with a hung jury last July, and the presiding judge declared a mistrial.
Jurors deadlocked 9-3 in favor of convicting Bishop, and 7-5 in favor of acquitting Harris, Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office spokesman Greg Risling said at the time.
Though the special circumstance allegation of murder for the benefit of a criminal street gang makes the two defendants eligible for capital punishment if convicted, prosecutors are seeking life imprisonment in the case, officials said.
“They’re not seeking the death penalty,” Risling said.
McClinton was walking with a friend and carrying a Christmas gift about 11 a.m. in the 1900 block of Newport Avenue when Bishop and Harris both opened fire on a rival gang member nearby, police and prosecutors allege. The intended target was wounded, but a stray bullet struck and killed McClinton.
The father of two, who founded the nonprofit Brotherhood Community Youth Sports League in Pasadena, succumbed to his injuries at a hospital.
In Los Angeles Superior Court, a man convicted of manslaughter and other crimes for the deaths of a Glendale woman and Daly City boy after running a red light and slamming into their family’s minivan on Christmas evening, 2012, while fleeing from FBI and police officials in Pasadena is also due in court Monday for sentencing.
A Pasadena Superior Court jury in November convicted Darrell Williams, 25, of Pasadena of the voluntary manslaughter of 25-year-old Tracey Ong Tan and her 11-year-old cousin, Kendrick Ng, as well as five counts of assault with a deadly weapon in November for the crash, which took place about 8 p.m. at Marengo Avenue and Maple Street.
Ong and Ng died at the
Ng’s parents and his sister, who were also in the minivan, suffered serious injuries.
The family was visiting the area for the holidays when their minivan was struck by an SUV driven by Williams as he led an FBI agent and Pasadena police officer on a chase.
The chase started when police and FBI officials, who were working gang suppression in the wake of McClinton’s shooting earlier in the day, tried to stop the SUV, but Williams fled instead. He is not suspected in the McClinton slaying.
William’s girlfriend and passenger in the fleeing SUV, 23-year-old Brittany Washington of Los Angeles, pleaded no contest in early 2014 to charged of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and received a two-year jail sentence, according to district attorney’s office spokesman Ricardo Santiago.
Williams faces up to 150 years in prison.

PHOTO: Candles in front of a photograph of Victor J. McClinton, is posted during a Candlelight Memorial in Remembrance of Victor J. McClinton, on the steps of Pasadena City Hall in Pasadena, Thursday, December 27, 2012. On Christmas Day, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department employee and youth sport volunteer, Victor J. McClinton was shot and killed, when he was caught in the cross fire between two gang members. (Correspondent Photo by James Carbone)