20-Year-Old Convicted Slayer Gets No-Parole Life Sentence

An Orange County Superior Court judge Friday refused to grant a new trial for Zachary F. Pettus, and sentenced him to life in prison, without possibility of parole, for killing a Huntington Beach clothing store owner.

Judge Leonard H. McBride followed through on his pronouncement of Jan. 22, when, in an action attorneys termed unusual, he preempted the jury and ruled that Pettus, 20, should not be sentenced to death.

The motion for a new trial made by Pettus’ lawyers is standard after a murder conviction, attorneys said.

Jurors in the Westminster court on Jan. 17 convicted Pettus of first-degree murder with special circumstances in the death of Darlene Hazboun, 37, who was stabbed and strangled. The special-circumstances verdict made Pettus liable for the death penalty, but rather than have the jury reconvene to decide between execution and life imprisonment, McBride said the sentence would be life without possibility of parole.

He said Pettus had no history of violent behavior and no previous criminal record. Deputy Dist. Atty. Patrick Geary had told McBride he had no additional evidence of aggravated circumstances in the crime, beyond what was produced at the trial.