At the height of the rush of dinner at LA Live, the stairs from the crypto.com arena were staircases, and glittering neon-covered restaurants and bars.
On November 28th, 2023, around 6pm, a white Ford escape was pulled out of rush hour traffic at Figuero Astrology Street and stopped along the curb outside Fixin Soul Kitchen.
The man leaves Ford, wearing a dark jogging suit with white trim, white sneakers and a baseball cap, with the word “no” on the front. As he entered the restaurant, a black balaclava covered his face.
La Live’s security cameras captured what happened next. In front of about 20 diners and employees, he walked behind a man eating alone at the bar, aiming for a pistol with both hands and shooting him in the back of his head.
At a court hearing Wednesday, detectives from the Los Angeles Police Department revealed how they identified the second shooter and the second man who were accused of coordinating what police called “a very well-organized execution.”
Detectives testified that analysis of surveillance footage, license plate readers, and cell phone and car location data would help resolve cases, but only in part.
It remains a mystery why two defendants of the gang members who were previously convicted of violent crimes target Sydney Barrett Morris, who served as a high-level post at California State University in Northridge shortly before his death.
In search of motivation, the detective obtained a search warrant for the victim’s CSUN email account, court records show. Morris’ colleague told detectives he was investigating players from the school’s boys basketball team accused of sexual misconduct and harassment. His colleagues theorized that the investigation had something to do with his murder.
The hints didn’t go anywhere, Detective Lead told The Times.
A review of public records related to Morris, 43, revealed that there were no clear signs of a life in distress. There are no crazy divorces, business disputes, restraining orders, and recent financial troubles.
“I was screaming at the DA myself. ‘What’s your motivation?’ Theida Salazar, a lawyer representing one of the suspects, said in an interview. “My client has nothing to do with this guy.”
Morris’ murderers would have barely been able to choose a more prominent place to commit murder.
LA Live is broken by the camera. Authorities, armed with a clear shot of the license plate of the escape vehicle, discovered that Ford was about to escape two days later, and it flares up on the side of the road in Palmdale. Hertz rentals were incinerated to that frame, eliminating a collection of DNA evidence. Joshua Byers of the LAPD Robbery and Murder Unit testified at a hearing Wednesday.
Police license plate readers indicated that Ford was in South Los Angeles the morning Morris was killed, Byers wrote in a search warrant affidavit reviewed by the Times. The detective obtained footage that morning. This showed that a woman would park a Ford outside the Second Avenue building before entering one of the units.
The unit was borrowed by a man named Santana Jermaine Kelly, Byers wrote.
Kelly, 49, was released from prison in 2019. According to a 2001 probation report reviewed by the Times, Baldwin Village was a longtime member of a gang in the 40s called “Iceman.”
Santana Kelly, shown in the 2018 photo, is charged with adjusting the murder of Sydney Barrett Morris.
(California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation)
Kelly, who was first arrested for carjacking a woman at the age of 16, was accused of going in and out of California youth authorities and state prisons until 2000, chasing and robbing an Asian patron at Hollywood Park Casino into her home, the report said.
Kelly was released after 19 years in prison for life on the escape police, court records show.
On the morning when Morris was killed, Kelly was seen wearing two distinctive hats in surveillance footage. He wore a baseball cap that could be seen by a shooter later, the detective wrote. He also had a wide, charming straw hat that detectives saw in footage from LA Live, covering the escape driver’s face.
Detectives can also get a glimpse into the murderer’s face in the Southla building, Byers testified. The man joined Kelly’s unit wearing the same clothes as Shooter. “Masks, jackets, pants, shoes – everything is the same,” Byers testified.
Published here in 2015, Philip Clark is charged with photographing Sydney Barrett Morris while eating dinner at Fixin Soul Kitchen on November 28, 2023.
(California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation)
At LA Live, the killer was careful to cover his face. But in South Los Angeles, he pulled Balaclava down, Byers testified. Detectives identified him as theft in a robbery convicted of Philip Pasco Clark and 33-year-old.
Clark, who was arrested on March 22, 2024 on suspicion of Morris’ murder, called out a woman from prison. “I’ve never shot anyone,” he declared in a recorded phone call made in court. He said he had never been to La Live.
Clark said he told detectives that as a member of the Carver Park Compton Crips, he didn’t get along with Kelly’s gang reference “the 40s.”
The woman said she was furious and didn’t say anything to Clark. “Stop talking!” she cried.
“I don’t shoot people,” Clark said. “I’m a robber. I love you.”
Detectives arrested Kelly the same day at his Palmdale home. Martin Mojaro testified. Among his black Dodge Durango detectives, he found a baseball cap in the video, Byers said.
Searching Kelly’s phone, Mojaro testified, discovering that two videos were engraved a month ago before Morris was killed. The detectives recognized where they were filmed: the alley behind the Westchester apartment where Morris lived.
According to Mojaro, Kelly said as he ran around the building, “This is where it is.” “Hmm. It’s kind of safe. There’s a red camera. So he’s close. There’s a camera everywhere, so you can see.”
In the second video there was a parking lot under Morris’ building. “I think it would be better to take him elsewhere,” Kelly said.
Both Kelly and Clark maintain their innocence. The escape driver, whose face is covered in a straw hat, remains unidentified, according to Byers’ affidavit.
The detectives arrested within four months of Morris’ death, but they were not yet close to finding out their motives.
Morris has experienced financial problems in the past. He declared bankruptcy in 2013, saying that his $76,000 annual salary as a human resources manager at the University of San Diego cannot cover the $224,000 owed student debt, unpaid taxes and personal loans.
However, according to school records reviewed by The Times, Morris’s estate appeared to have been hired by 2019 as director of equity and compliance at CSUN. By 2023, his annual salary had risen to $185,000. He also opened B-you, a restaurant about three blocks from LA Live.
Several of Morris’ colleagues at CSUN theorized that his death was related to his work. Based on their tips in April 2024, Byers wrote a search warrant for his CSUN email account.
Before his death, Morris was investigating the CSUN men’s basketball team, Byers wrote in a search warrant affidavit. According to university records reviewed by the Times, female students denounced the basketball player and two other retaliatory players after reporting in July 2023.
Morris also ran a consulting business to provide Title IX compliance training. When he hired his company and advised the school at a cost of $12,000, CSUN officials led him to blame him for self-dealing, Byers wrote in his affidavit.
Morris resigned three weeks before his death.
Byers wanted to read Morris’ email. The memo “provides insight into the investigation conducted by the victim,” he not only wrote in his affidavit, but also revealed “the concerns, threats or fears the victim may have.”
However, after reviewing the email, Byers told The Times. He said he couldn’t find any evidence linking Morris’ death to his college career.
Sub-ward. Atty. Jonathan Chong, who is indicting Kelly and Clark, said he still doesn’t know the motive for Morris’ murder.
CSUN spokesman Carmen Ramos Chandler said university officials “has no reason to believe his death is related to his work.”
The school will continue to work with LAPD, she said, “to lead the perpetrators to justice.”
Clark and Kelly’s preliminary hearings continue on May 22nd.
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