A young man who joined his brother and another man in a robbery that turned deadly at the Desert Hills Premium Outlets in Cabazon was sentenced Friday to 11 years in state prison.
Elijah Ray Burt, 22, of Victorville last month admitted a charge of voluntary manslaughter under a plea agreement with the Riverside County District Attorney’s Office. In exchange for his admission, prosecutors dropped three related charges against Burt.
During a hearing at the Riverside Hall of Justice Friday, Superior Court Judge Jerry Yang certified the terms of the plea deal and imposed the sentence stipulated by the prosecution and defense.
Last week, following a nearly two-week trial, a Riverside jury convicted Burt’s co-defendant, 21-year-old Reginald Charles Trice, also of Victorville, of first-degree murder, a special-circumstance allegation of killing in the course of a robbery, conspiracy, illegal possession of a firearm and a sentence-enhancing gun use allegation for the 2022 slaying of 66-year-old Michael Moser of Palm Springs.
Trice, who is being held without bail at the Robert Presley Jail, is scheduled for sentencing on Oct. 10. He’s expected to receive life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Elijah Burt’s twin brother, Emanuel Rick Burt, pleaded guilty last year to conspiracy and was sentenced to six years in state prison.
According to a trial brief filed by the D.A.’s office, Trice was the admitted gunman in the deadly shooting, while the brothers served as cohorts.
The trio, longtime friends, arrived in Riverside County on March 24, 2022, in Trice’s Jeep Cherokee, seeking out targets of opportunity, heading directly to the Cabazon mall, in the 48600 block of Seminole Drive, just off of Interstate 10, in the late afternoon.
Trice allowed Emanuel Bert to drive the SUV, and while they waited at a pedestrian crossing, Moser passed in front of the vehicle, talking on his mobile phone and walking into the mall.
“Trice explained that he saw the victim and thought he was wearing a `Rollie,’ slang for Rolex watch,” court papers stated. “Trice said, `Once you see something you like, you get it.”’
He and Elijah Burt jumped out of the Jeep and tailed Moser into the mall, intending to rob him. Emanuel Burt then backed the Jeep into position for a getaway.
Moser went into a restroom, with Trice and Elijah Burt close behind. Once inside, the defendants confronted him, Trice brandishing a Glock semiautomatic pistol and demanding that the victim surrender the Rolex, the brief said.
“Trice said Elijah froze and didn’t help with the attempted robbery,” the narrative said. “The victim started fighting, and Trice had his gun out during the fight, and the gun went off. He said Elijah got shot in the hand. He said that all the victim had to do was `give it up.”’
Instead, Trice fired the gun at Moser, killing him on the spot, the prosecution said.
The defendants ran to the Jeep and jumped in, speeding away. From the time the men spotted Moser in the parking lot to the point in which they fled the location altogether took 90 seconds.
A security guard initiated CPR on Moser, then county sheriff’s deputies, until fire department paramedics attempted lifesaving measures, but he was pronounced dead at the scene.
Elijah Burt went to Arrowhead Regional Medical Center for treatment of his superficial hand wound.
Sheriff’s detectives gathered recordings from surveillance video cameras situated throughout the mall, gleaning license plate information for the getaway vehicle, which culminated in revelation of the defendants’ identities. The investigation led to verification of their movements using cell phone data and other security surveillance videos from area gas stations and hotels.
Sheriff’s Sgt. Ben Ramirez said a warrant was obtained and served at Trice’s residence in the 15500 block of Morada Road on April 21, 2022, when he was taken into custody without incident. The brothers were tracked down and arrested in Las Vegas at the end of April 2022.
None of the men had documented prior adult felony convictions in Riverside County. However, Trice and Emanuel Burt served sentences under supervision of the California Youth Authority for unspecified juvenile offenses in San Bernardino County, according to court records.