Local News in Brief : N. Hollywood Man Convicted in Murder of Grocery Clerk

A North Hollywood man was convicted Tuesday of first-degree murder with special circumstances for the 1982 shooting of a grocery clerk during a robbery of a Sun Valley market.

Because of the special-circumstances conviction, the man, Mart Meiel, 37, will be sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole when he appears before San Fernando Superior Court Judge Dana Senit Henry for sentencing Dec. 6, Deputy Dist. Atty. William H. Johnson said.

The district attorney did not seek the death penalty in the case.

Meiel was convicted of murder with the special circumstances of robbery and burglary for the killing Timothy Rea, 21, a member of the California State University, Northridge, volleyball team, as Rea ran to the aid of a cashier in the Sept. 19, 1982, robbery.

According to testimony during the two-month trial, Meiel, wearing a wig, red bandanna and dark glasses to disguise himself, walked into the Foods Co. market in the 8900 block of Glenoaks Boulevard and asked for a pack of cigarettes.

As the cashier opened her cash drawer to give him change, witnesses testified, Meiel grabbed a stack of $20 bills from the drawer. The woman tried to slam the cash drawer and began screaming, witnesses said.

Responding to the woman’s cries, Rea ran toward Meiel from the back of the store, witnesses said. When he spotted a gun in Meiel’s hand, Rea stopped and backed up with his hands in the air, saying, “It’s OK. It’s OK. Don’t shoot,” witnesses testified. Meiel fired once at Rea, hitting him in the chest and killing him.

Meiel did not testify in his own defense. His attorney, Michael Pogue, challenged witnesses’ identification of Meiel.