Guilty Plea : Murder Suspect Surprises Court

In a surprise move, Thomas L. Canup, member of a Hollywood street group that authorities have described as a “mini-Manson family,” pleaded guilty Wednesday to second-degree murder in the slaying of a male prostitute.

The 24-year-old Orange County native was immediately sentenced to 15 years to life in state prison by Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Aurelio Munoz.

Canup entered the plea shortly before Deputy Dist. Atty. Rita Stapleton was scheduled to begin her opening statements in his trial--the first of four scheduled murder trials set for Sonny Godfrey, 42, of Hollywood, and three of his associates.

Under terms of his plea, Canup made no agreement to testify at the upcoming trials.

Searching for Prostitutes

The group, which authorities say Godfrey headed, has been accused of setting out to purge Santa Monica Boulevard of male prostitutes by killing them.

Canup, who drifted to Hollywood after his discharge from the Marine Corps, was accused of aiding and abetting the murder of Andrew Lawrence Foster in early 1984.

Prosecutors have charged that Canup, acting on Godfrey’s instructions, located Foster at a fast-food stand in West Hollywood and persuaded him to go to the Brevoort Hotel with him, where Godfrey lived. There, authorities say, Canup bound and gagged Foster and left.

The next morning, Foster allegedly was taken to the Mojave Desert by Godfrey, Robert Harris Ormsbee and a companion, Phillip Dowell.

The body of Foster, who authorities believe was involved in a dispute over money taken in a motel robbery, later was found south of Palmdale. His skull had been crushed with a rock.

Canup, who also pleaded guilty to a robbery charge for which he received a three-year term that will run concurrently with his murder sentence, lived with a girlfriend in Godfrey’s apartment.

Godfrey, a former motel clerk with whom Foster allegedly had once had a homosexual relationship, has been described as ringleader of the transient band. He is charged with the murders of three homosexual male prostitutes--Foster, William Henning and Carlos Pena.

Godfrey and Ormsbee, 20, face the death penalty if convicted. Oleg Pinsky, 20, a Russian immigrant who arrived in the United States with his parents about three years ago, is charged with one count of murder. All are in jail without bail.

Plea Bargain Worked

Stapleton said she was pleased with the plea bargain, since Canup was the least involved of those charged in the killings. If a trial had taken place, Canup risked a sentence of 25 years to life if found guilty of first-degree murder.

Dowell, who has been subpoenaed to appear at the trials, has made incriminating statements concerning his own involvement in two of the killings. But the statements cannot be used against him because of an agreement struck by the district attorney’s office with Dowell’s lawyer before he allowed his client to talk to authorities.

Stapleton said Dowell is still “a very active suspect.”

Another group member, Cheryl McPherson, 22, a self-described prostitute, has pleaded guilty to kidnaping and robbery charges, Stapleton said.