First of 2 Suspects in 1982 Murder Case Is Convicted

The first of two men accused of killing Scott Campbell and dropping his body into the ocean from an airplane was convicted of first-degree murder Monday, nearly four years after Gary and Collene Campbell first began looking into their son’s disappearance.

Larry R. Cowell, 37, formerly of Anaheim, was convicted by Superior Court Judge Donald A. McCartin without a jury in Santa Ana. He could receive 25 years to life in prison at sentencing on Jan. 6, 1986. McCartin had ruled earlier that the case did not qualify for the death penalty.

Gary Campbell called the verdict a hollow victory, in part because he said Cowell should have been given the death sentence.

“But at least with this verdict we can begin to get on with our lives,” Campbell said. “That’s something we haven’t been able to do for a long time.”

For months, the Cowells questioned police persistently about their son’s disappearance. Finally, on their own, they discovered that Cowell had rented a plane at Fullerton Municipal Airport the same day their son disappeared, and that Cowell had asked a friend to lie about the flight plan.

With that information supplied by the Campbells, Anaheim police investigator Larry Flynn joined the inquiry, which eventually led to Cowell’s arrest.

McCartin, who heard the case without a jury at Cowell’s request, said he believed that Cowell and co-defendant Donald DiMascio, 33, of South El Monte, whose trial is pending, planned Campbell’s death, lured him into a rented airplane at Fullerton Municipal Airport, then killed him somewhere above the Pacific Ocean and dropped his body from 2,000 feet.

The most damaging evidence McCartin cited was Cowell’s own statements to a police informant, secretly tape-recorded, describing the details of how Campbell was killed.

Cowell, who has been free on $250,000 bail, was taken into custody immediately after the verdict.

The Cowell and Campbell families had been close friends for years. Police believe that the long friendship between Larry Cowell, who has been living with his parents in Parker, Ariz., and Scott Campbell eventually led the two into drug deals together.

The Campbells, who live in San Juan Capistrano, do not believe that their son was heavily involved in selling drugs. But they know now that on April 17, 1982, Campbell, living in Anaheim, was planning to go to North Dakota to sell a pound of cocaine to someone named Greg Fox. What Scott Campbell did not know was that Fox was a federal drug-enforcement undercover informant.

Campbell, 27, never made it to North Dakota, and his answering machine was filled with angry messages from Fox about his failure to appear.

Fox agreed to work with Flynn as an informant, and it was his conversations with Cowell and DiMascio that produced the incriminating statements, secretly tape-recorded.

Cowell’s attorneys, Jerry Reopelle and Greg Jones, wanted McCartin to hear the case without a jury after McCartin said during pretrial motions that he thought the robbery of cash and cocaine from Campbell was only incidental. If McCartin had ruled that the murder occurred during the commission of a robbery, it could have lead to a possible death penalty.

McCartin said in his ruling Monday that he had no doubt that Cowell and DiMascio wanted Campbell dead because “one or both of them had been burned by Mr. Campbell” in past drug dealings.

Reopelle argued that there was no evidence to show that Cowell helped plan the murder. He also argued that Cowell participated in a cover-up later because “the heat was on from DiMascio.”

But McCartin disagreed.

“If the heat was on, it was before the plane took off,” McCartin said. “If Mr. Cowell didn’t know ahead of time what was going to happen to Mr. Campbell, why did he fly the plane toward Catalina? “

DiMascio’s trial is pending in McCartin’s courtroom. But Deputy Dist. Atty. Thomas Avdeef said after the verdict that Deputy Public Defender Robert Goss, who represents DiMascio, plans to ask for another judge.

Avdeef said he doesn’t know yet whether he will seek to have DiMascio’s bail revoked now that a Superior Court judge has found that DiMascio participated in a conspiracy to kill Campbell.

McCartin convicted Cowell of first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit murder and robbery.

After Monday’s verdict, a glum Cowell hugged his parents. His mother told him through tears, “You know we love you, son.” Cowell said, “I know, I know.”

Gary Campbell said later that he has tremendous empathy for the Cowells.

“They deserved a lot better than they got,” he said.