Opinion ID: 2639408
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Thompson murder and robbery

Text: On the evening of April 9, 1987, David Thompson and his wife Namora Thompson, residents of Tustin in Orange County, drove their 1987 Hyundai to Los Angeles to attend a church-related function. The event ended around 11:00 or 11:30 p.m. One of the members of their church then told Mr. Thompson that the bus carrying fellow church members to Los Angeles had broken down. Mr. Thompson attempted unsuccessfully to telephone the pastor of the church; then, along with his wife, he went to the location of the inoperative bus to see whether he could be of assistance. When efforts to start the bus failed, Mr. and Mrs. Thompson got back into their car and drove to a telephone booth to try again to contact their pastor. They rejected the first booth they encountered because it was poorly lit and they were concerned for their safety. Driving further, they stopped at a welllit gas station with four telephone booths. Mr. Thompson parked the car about six feet away from the booths and got out to make the call while Mrs. Thompson remained in the car. Suddenly, two men approached from behind the car. The first one, who was tall and kind of fair skinned, got into the phone booth next to Mr. Thompson's. The second, who was more fair skinned than the first man and about three inches shorter than Mr. Thompson, stood in front of Mr. Thompson. The second man then opened the driver's side door of the Thompsons' car, reached in and told Mrs. Thompson to give him the car keys. At that point, a third man, who appeared to be about Mrs. Thompson's height (five feet six inches tall) knocked on the passenger's side window and told her to get out of the car without turning around. She complied. The first man, now standing in front of Mr. Thompson, was telling him to hang up the phone, cursing at him and demanding his money. The man who was standing behind Mrs. Thompson asked if she had any money. She told him she would see, took the wallet from her purse, removed a $10 bill and handed it to him over her right shoulder. When he asked if that was all she had, she told him to look for himself and gave him her wallet, whereupon he insisted she look. The man instructed her to walk towards the back of the car. He then came around the back of the car and got into the backseat on the driver's side, while the first man, who had been at the phone booth, started to get into the driver's seat. As Mr. Thompson hung up the receiver, the first man got out of the car, returned to the phone booth and put the gun to Mr. Thompson's head. As Mr. Thompson prayed aloud, the man shot him. All three men then got into the car and drove away. Later on the night of the shooting, being under great stress, Mrs. Thompson told police she was unable to identify any of the assailants, and she failed to make an identification from a photographic lineup. At the preliminary hearing and at trial, however, she identified defendant as the man who had shot her husband. At the time of the Thompson murder, George Austin was driving east on the inside lane of Slauson Avenue. As he approached a Mobil station located at Slauson and Broadway, he heard a gunshot. Looking in the direction of the shot, he observed several phone booths, a small gray car and three Black males near the car. Two were getting in on the passenger's side of the car, while the third was coming from the phone booth and entering the driver's side of the vehicle. Austin described the third man as a Black man of medium build, five feet six inches to five feet eight inches in height. Although Austin failed to identify defendant at the preliminary hearing, at trial he identified defendant as the man he had seen walking back to the car from the phone booths. Around 11:00 on the night of the Thompson murder, Homer Butler was at the Mobil station at the corner of Broadway and Slauson. He was often there, assisting people in getting gas, checking oil and doing things of that nature in exchange for some change. On that occasion, Butler heard a woman screaming and, near the telephone booths, saw a man going through a purse, a man in a suit inside the phone booth and a young Black male going through his pockets. Two young Black males were near the woman who was screaming. Realizing a robbery was in progress, Butler hid behind the gas station cashier's booth so he would not be seen. Butler then ran across the street to a barbecue restaurant to dial 911. As he was doing so, he heard a gunshot coming from the robbery scene. Looking over, he saw three to four people drive away. After calling 911, he rushed back across the street. The woman was still screaming hysterically; the man had been fatally shot. Butler spoke with the police. Detective William Baird testified that Butler had identified defendant's picture in a photographic lineup as looking familiar to one of the guys in the car[`s] right front passenger seat. Subsequently, at some point prior to trial, Baird again spoke with Butler, who said of defendant's picture in the photo lineup, That's the guy, but I'm not going to testify to it. Butler indicated he feared he would be in danger if he identified anyone and, if called to testify, would deny having done so. The Thompsons' damaged car was found abandoned in the area of 70th Street and Estrella Avenue, its battery and radio missing. Todd Lavera admitted to Detective Baird that he had thrown Mr. Thompson's wallet into a storm drain at Hoover Street and Florence Avenue; Baird drove there and recovered the wallet. Detective Baird participated in the arrest of both defendant, then age 18, and Todd Lavera, then age 22. In the course of their booking, the police determined defendant's height to be six feet one inch and that of Lavera to be six feet two inches. Detective Morton Duff took part in arresting Andre Moore, then age 16, whose height was determined, during booking, to be five feet five inches.