3 Held in Murders Confess, Documents Say

Documents filed Thursday in West Los Angeles Municipal Court disclosed that three of the four suspects jailed in the murders of two Thousand Oaks college students have confessed their roles in the crime and have fingered the fourth suspect as the trigger man.

In the court documents, police said Deandre A. Brown, Donald R. Bennett and Damon L. Redmon named Stanley B. Davis as the gunman who shot the couple with a Uzi semi-automatic rifle. The documents also state that the weapon was found by police under a bed in Brown’s home.

Brian E. Harris, 20, and Michelle A. Boyd, 18, were shot to death Sept. 30, after they were kidnaped in Westwood and taken to a field on Mulholland Drive near the San Diego Freeway, police said.

The next day, Harris’ car was found ablaze in the Firestone-Florence county area near South Los Angeles. On Sunday, after a fingerprint was lifted from Harris’ car, police made three arrests. One suspect later led officers to the couple’s bodies in the Santa Monica Mountains, police said.

Redmon, 19, and Davis, 23, face murder charges with special circumstances, which could bring the death penalty, or life in prison without the possibility of parole, if convicted.

Brown and Bennett, both 21, face murder charges but no special circumstances were alleged.

All four are being held in County Jail without bail.

After the couple were abducted, the documents stated, “Davis took the two victims into an open field and shot them to death.”

Davis refused to talk to police, the papers stated.

“I feel real bad about what happened,” police said Bennett told them. “I never killed anybody in my life. I went with those guys, man, because I just did. I had no idea what they were going to do. All we wanted was the car. I felt if I didn’t go with them, they would kill me, too.”

Meanwhile, more than 900 mourners overflowed a Thousand Oaks church Thursday as funeral services were conducted for the two students.

“I think all of us are asking the question: Why? Why?” the Rev. Terry Franklin of St. Paschal Baylon Catholic Church told the mourners. “I don’t have an answer to that question. There is no person on Earth who has the answer to that question.”

In addition to family members, the service was attended by scores of young friends who knew Harris and Miss Boyd, who both worked at a record store in Thousand Oaks during the summer and, a short time later, began dating.

“They were in love,” Franklin told the gathering. “And that love spread out to everyone they met. Look around. You can see that love.”

Harris, an English student at California State University, Northridge, and Miss Boyd, a freshman psychology major at UCLA, were buried side by side at a cemetery in Westlake Village.

Outrage and Anger

Later, at a reception, some expressed outrage at what had happened and anger at the criminal justice system.

“How it could happen is incredible,” said one young man, who had attended high school with Harris, noting that police had said two of the suspects were involved in a similar, less tragic, incident in Westwood 17 months ago.

Paula Grossman, 18, a friend of Miss Boyd since seventh grade, said: “The channeling of our anger is very important. . . . When this trial comes up, we will definitely be there. We want justice done. Not out of hate, not out of revenge, but justice should be done. They (the suspects) should not be let out on the streets again.”