A state appeals court panel Tuesday rejected a former Marina del Rey resident’s bid for re-sentencing in a triple-murder case that included the June 2001 shooting deaths of two brothers who would have inherited $380,000 from their late mother, who was a police officer.
The three-justice panel from California’s 2nd District Court of Appeal upheld a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge’s order last year denying a petition filed on behalf of Timothy Mack, who was sentenced to three consecutive life terms without the possibility of parole.
The petition was filed based on a change in state law that affects defendants in some murder cases.
Mack was convicted of the June 6, 2001, shooting deaths of Howard Byrdsong, 20, and his 18-year-old brother, Jontrae, in Inglewood.
He was also found guilty in the April 17, 2000, revenge murder of 46-year-old Norman Fields. Prosecutors allege that Fields’ killing, which was not connected to the Byrdsong slayings, was carried out in retaliation for the death of Mack’s brother.
All three killings were carried out by Waymond Jackson, who at the time was the boyfriend of one of Mack’s nieces, according to Deputy District Attorney Ron Goudy.
Jackson was shot to death in October 2001, but police do not know if his murder was connected to the three homicides, according to the prosecutor.
Mack and former Beverly Hills attorney Angela Wallace were convicted in December 2002 and sentenced to six years in state prison for the grand theft of nearly $300,000 in life insurance proceeds that were due the Byrdsong brothers.
Wallace — who has not been charged in connection with the brothers’ killings — had had her license to practice law suspended for two years by the State Bar of California when she represented Howard Byrdsong after his mother, Los Angeles police Officer Shiree Arrant, died of a brain tumor.
Arrant’s two sons were the beneficiaries of her life insurance policy, and Mack wanted both brothers dead because Howard Byrdsong went to the District Attorney’s Office to report the theft, Goudy said.
Mack arranged for Jackson to go to the home where the brothers were staying, Goudy said. The killer was dressed as a postal carrier who said he had something for the older brother to sign.
The owner of the home where the Byrdsongs were living identified Jackson from police photographs, Goudy said.
In the other killing, Fields was shot in the parking lot of a shopping center in the 9800 block of National Boulevard in Los Angeles. The Las Vegas man was visiting Southern California with his girlfriend.
Mack, who had long believed Fields was responsible for the 1996 killing of his brother, had the victim ambushed by two men outside the store, Goudy told jurors during the trial.
Mack later told an acquaintance that he had Jackson kill Fields, Goudy said. He said telephone records and wiretaps also linked Mack to the three killings.
Along with the murders, jurors who heard the case against Mack found true the special circumstance allegations of multiple murders, murder for financial gain, murder of a potential witness and lying in wait.