A state appeals court panel Friday upheld the convictions of two men for a convenience store clerk’s killing during an attempted robbery they committed amid a series of hold-ups throughout the Los Angeles area, but reversed a judge’s sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole for one of the defendants.
The three-justice panel from California’s 2nd District Court of Appeal found that there was “ample evidence” to support Bryant S. Moore’s first-degree murder conviction, but insufficient evidence to support the jury’s finding of the special circumstance allegation of murder during an attempted robbery.
Moore was convicted along with Rasheen Childs in the Dec. 22, 2013, attempted robbery of Gonzalo Garcia, 31, at a 7-Eleven store in Highland Park.
In their 26-page ruling, the appellate court justices wrote that “all evidence indicated that Childs, not Moore, was the mastermind of the robbery.”
“The surveillance video shows that Childs resorted to shooting Garcia almost instantaneously when Garcia turned to flee, and there was no evidence that Moore knew that Childs was likely to use lethal force,” the panel found. “Indeed, Moore had completed several prior robberies with Childs in which Childs did not fire the gun.”
The appellate panel ordered Moore to be re-sentenced on the murder charge.
Citing a new state law that gives judges discretion on whether to strike or dismiss certain handgun enhancements during sentencing, the justices also ordered a new sentencing hearing for Childs and a third defendant, Eric Tyrone Carter, who was convicted of seven counts of second-degree robbery for his involvement in some of the hold-ups.
In sentencing Childs and Moore to life without parole in July 2016, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Sam Ohta called them “serial robbers” who preyed on clerks at gas stations and convenience stores.
The judge noted that Childs gunned down Garcia as the victim ran away and that “the crime spree did not stop” after Garcia’s killing.
Childs and Moore were convicted of first-degree murder and attempted robbery in connection with Garcia’s killing.
Jurors also found Childs guilty of 18 counts of second-degree robbery and one count of false imprisonment by violence. Those charges stemmed from a series of robberies between Dec. 11, 2013, and Jan. 2, 2014, in Los Angeles, Long Beach, Gardena and Carson.
Moore was additionally convicted of 10 counts of second-degree robbery and one count of false imprisonment by violence.
At the sentencing for Moore and Childs, one of the victim’s cousins said Garcia had immigrated to the United States to support his family, had not seen his parents for 14 years and wound up being sent home to Mexico in a casket.
A separate jury convicted Carter of seven counts of second-degree robbery for his involvement in some of the hold-ups. He was sentenced to nearly 40 years in state prison.