Local News in Brief : Man Convicted of 1st-Degree Murder in Shootings at Bar

A 19-year-old North Hollywood man was convicted of first-degree murder, two counts of assault with a firearm and attempted robbery Thursday for fatally shooting a bartender and injuring two patrons while trying to rob a North Hollywood bar-restaurant.

During his one-month trial, Lydell F. Magee, who was 18 at the time of the incident at Wellington’s Restaurant on Feb. 7, admitted doing the shooting but contested the prosecution’s claim that he deliberately shot bartender John Shetler, who also used the name Wayne Paris, and two other men.

A busboy at the bar, Ivan Airaya, has been accused of setting up the robbery because he was angry with the bar’s owner. Deputy Dist. Atty. Richard Seldeen said Airaya, who was 17 when the robbery occurred but has since turned 18, will go on trial next month on one count of murder, two counts of assault with a firearm, and one count of attempted robbery.

Bar patrons Keith Poppe and Armand Bouzas were injured in the shooting, which took place in front of Shetler’s mother, Mary. She had come from Pennsylvania to visit her son for the first time in three years.

Seldeen asked the San Fernando Superior Court jury to find Magee guilty of intentionally killing Shetler during the commission of a robbery, a “special circumstance” that would have allowed Judge John H. Major to sentence Magee to life in prison without possibility of parole.

Seldeen said he was not seeking the death penalty because of Magee’s age at the time of the murder.

But the jury, which heard Magee’s taped confession in which he tearfully told his mother that he did not mean to shoot anyone, found Magee innocent of the special-circumstances charge.

“He was carrying the gun down around his waist, which is more consistent with someone shooting from the hip than with someone who is aiming,” defense attorney Bernie Rosen said after the verdict. “His statement was that he was nervous, he was frightened, and his own words were that the gun just went off.”

Rosen said he conceded Magee’s guilt throughout the trial, asking jurors to concentrate only on the special-circumstances allegation.

Seldeen said Magee could be sentenced to 31 years to life in prison when he appears for sentencing on Dec. 2.