Story of Stolen Cat, Slain Owner Ends With Jail Terms for Two

The conflict began when neighbors stole Chuck, a 3-year-old, longhaired cat that belonged to Lisa and Larry Ray of Tarzana. It ended in Larry Ray’s death.

Nine months after the cat disappeared, Lisa Ray found the animal in her neighbors’ apartment. After she took the cat home, one of the neighbors and two others pummeled Larry Ray, 33, in retaliation. According to witnesses, he was held down on a garage floor as the assailants kicked and beat the 33-year-old carpenter. He died six days later of internal injuries.

Tuesday, two of the assailants were sentenced in Van Nuys Superior Court to prison and jail terms for their part in the June, 1983, killing.

Voluntary Manslaughter

Neighbor Donald Kincade--a 27-year-old plasterer who, according to police, shouted, “You’re going to die; I’m going to kill you!” as he bludgeoned Ray--received a four-year prison term after pleading no contest to a charge of voluntary manslaughter.

Darlene Newman, a 41-year-old administrator at a San Fernando Valley retirement home, pleaded guilty Tuesday to assault with intent to commit great bodily injury. She received 180 days in jail for her role in the killing. Police said she punched and kicked Ray while he was unconscious.

A third defendant, Jeffrey Newman, a 30-year-old handyman who is Darlene Newman’s husband, was referred to Chino State Prison for psychiatric testing. He will be sentenced July 8.

“They could have had the cat, had I known they were going to kill my husband,” a tearful Lisa Ray, 27, said outside the courtroom after the sentencing.

Slain Man the Father of Two

The Rays had been married two months at the time of the slaying. Larry Ray was the father of two children, 6 and 10, who lived with the couple. The children now live with their mother in Ohio.

Lisa Ray, a former secretary, traced the dissension at the apartment complex, in the 18400 block of Collins Street, to September, 1982. Kincade’s girlfriend, who shared his apartment, came by the Rays’ apartment and asked if the couple wanted to give away Chuck, the exotic-looking animal that resembled a Himalayan cat but was not purebred.

“I told her to get her own cat,” Lisa Ray recalled.

Besides the cat, she said, the couple owned a poodle and two cockatoos, which used to ride on Chuck’s back. “We were one big happy family,” she said.

But, one week later, Chuck disappeared, she said. Larry Ray went to the Kincade apartment, three doors down, and asked if either Kincade or his girlfriend had seen Chuck. They told him no, Lisa Ray said.

In a psychiatrist’s report on Kincade, filed with the court, Kincade maintained that the cat ran free in the apartment complex and begged food from neighbors. “We adopted the cat when it was starving,” he said.

Kincade said the cat “had worms and maggots, and we spent close to $500 at the vet,” the report said.

Lisa Ray said in an interview that she eventually spotted the cat in a screened-off section of the Kincade patio. She said she kicked in the screen and took Chuck back to her own apartment.

Windshield Smashed

Three days later, on June 15, 1983, the Rays found the windshield of their truck smashed. An argument ensued between the couple and Kincade.

After the Rays returned to their apartment, according to a probation report, Kincade pounded on the Rays’ door, screaming, “I’m going to kill you. I’m going to get you. I’m going to get your old lady.”

The report said that, when the Rays left their apartment with the cat, Kincade, along with visiting friends Darlene and Jeffrey Newman, chased the couple into a garage area of the apartment project. The killing occurred there, police said.

Lisa Ray told officers after the incident that she “watched them beat my husband till he died,” the report said. She was not harmed.

Arrested at Scene

Police, called by neighbors, arrested Kincade and the Newmans at the scene.

The three suspects were each charged with murder, but the charges were reduced in a plea bargain with the district attorney’s office.

Kincade could have been sentenced to a maximum of six years. In sentencing him, Commissioner Alan B. Haber noted that Kincade had no criminal record, but said, “Kincade was the leader of the pack. He obviously behaved in a manner unacceptable in our society.”

Prosecutor Norman Montrose, who negotiated the plea bargain, said the district attorney’s office did not pursue the murder charges “because there was no indication of premeditation (or) malice.”

‘Absurd and Outrageous’

He termed the killing “tragic, absurd and outrageous.”

Lisa Ray was not appeased by the sentence, which she called “ridiculous.”

“They took my husband’s life, and now their lives should be taken,” she said.

Lisa Ray still carries a photograph of Chuck in her wallet. But she said she has not seen the cat since the slaying, during which he ran away.