The California Supreme Court said on Thursday that the death sentence for one of LA’s most infamous gang killers was wrongly rejected by ju umpire, who likely escaped Timothy McGee’s execution.
“The conviction and sentence of McGee must be reversed because the ju apprentice mistakenly left the office during the guilt stage deliberation,” Judge Goodwin H. Liu wrote to the court.
McGee, 51, was one of the most wanted fugitives in the country when he collapsed in Bullhead City in 2003 following a national manhunt. The head of the Tonaville gang in Atwater Village was suspected of killing nine people and was found guilty of six.
Those convictions, which were handed down by death penalty in 2009, were reversed on Thursday with a drastic court decision.
McGee, who is said to be ruthless and trained, cut a horrible figure in the Gangland Wars in LA in the 1990s and early 2000s. His back and chest are decorated with names of his crew and grass, and his shaved skull is carved with the Mexican flag eagle and snake.
A deputy at the Los Angeles Police Department once compared him to Charles Manson.
The gang boss organized a sophisticated ambush that untook law enforcement and seduced two LAPD officers in a shootout. Witnesses at his trial testified that he campaigned for fear, hunting rivals, and sometimes indiscriminately killing them. He boasted rap lyrics about the joy he felt in taking someone else’s life.
“I’m coming here and running my last chance. A killer with a gun, some fun,” McGee wrote in a notebook of rap lyrics found at his girlfriend’s house. “In my dreams, I hear a scream. The joy that makes me feel very indecent.”
These lyrics helped convince McGee’s guilty ju-degree in the deaths of rival gang members 25-year-old Ryan Gonzalez and another rival girlfriend, 25-year-old Mersey Mendoza.
During the penalty stage of the trial, the ju judges were told they were involved in the execution-style murder of friend Christina Duran, who spoke to police about his role in Mendoza’s murder.
However, the ju judges were stuck on whether or not they should face the death penalty. One ju umpire told The Times that two fellow members insisted that McGee should receive some degree of generosity as he grew up without his father.
“What do you need to tilt the scale?” said the ju decree. “That’s how most of us felt.”
The second ju umpire agreed that he should be executed, but not before the “hard head” holdout was dismissed after two fellow ju umpires claimed that “a fair decision cannot be made in either of the counts against McGee.”
“Ju no. 5 uses speculation as fact and there is no reasonable explanation as to why he feels the way he does so other than saying that all the prosecutor’s witnesses are being administered and lied,” judges 9 and 11 wrote the court on the third day of deliberation. “Even so, all the defense witnesses are telling the truth and it’s incredible.”
The court first asked the foreperson to weigh it. He agreed with ju referees 9 and 11, claiming that No. 5’s claim “does not come from what we heard.” Several other ju apprentices voted by the court disagreed, saying the deliberations were on track.
The Juror 5 suspicions appeared to be sticking to the gang members who served as witnesses to McGee. Some testified that they cut transactions in exchange for testimony and that police had made him identify him. No one came out in front of me first.
These facts helped to shake the High Court that the concerns of Ju Court 5 were genuine and his removal was inappropriate.
“Most of these witnesses testified at trial that they did not remember the incident in question, while other witnesses admitted to lying to the police about what they knew,” Judge Li wrote. “Among those who worked together as witnesses, former Tonerville member Mark Gonzalez was testified under the grant of immunity, and there was evidence suggesting that other witnesses benefited in exchange for their testimony.”
According to court documents, Juror 5 told fellow ju apprentices that he felt their stories looked rehearsed.
He suspected one witness, a mother of four, as he said he went outside to see what had happened after hearing the gunshot.
The ju-deputy said he refused to believe another witness because “if he hears a shot, he will fall on the floor and try to protect himself.”
Foreperson said the court’s ju judge 5 claimed “gang members wouldn’t do certain things.”
Liu said the belief could be based on testimony from a prosecutor’s gang expert.
McGee’s lawyer, Patrick Ford, said the court’s finding was justified based on the reasonable doubts of the ju judge.
“He’s been deliberating carefully and he’s only reached a different conclusion than the other ju umpires,” Ford said. It’s not an easy job in a “12 angry men” situation like “11-Against-1.” ”
Although his murder conviction has been overturned, McGee probably remains in the Kern Valley State Jail, serving the additional life sentence he earned under California’s decades-long three strike laws.
While awaiting trial at L.A. Men’s Central Prison, he incited prison riots and assaulted security guards, court records show. In 2012 he was accused of cutting two prison guards with a shank while awaiting the execution of death row inmates at San Quentin.
Los Angeles District Attorney Nathan Hochmann didn’t immediately say whether he would try McGee again for the murder, or whether he would seek the death penalty again for his predecessor’s abuse.
Hochman said later last month that he would reverse the previous moratorium and seek the death penalty.
Ford said that when the original conviction becomes expensive and difficult, it would bring back nearly 20 years.
“It’s a very serious problem, it’s expensive and there’s a lot of resources used in the state,” California hasn’t executed prisoners in years. “You wonder, what will end? Is the money worth it?”
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