Sentencing for ’82 Crime Rampage : Motel Manager’s Killer Gets Life Term

A man convicted of murdering a Sylmar motel manager during a 1982 crime rampage was sentenced Monday in San Fernando Superior Court to life in prison without possibility of parole.

The man, J. D. Adams Jr., 26, of Sepulveda, was ordered by Judge John H. Major to serve the life sentence consecutive with a 17-year term he received Jan. 3 on a conviction for robbery and attempted murder stemming from the crime spree.

A jury in October found Adams guilty of killing Motel 6 manager Kenneth Holbrook. But the jury deadlocked 9 to 3 on whether Adams should receive the death penalty.

The district attorney’s office could have requested that the penalty phase of the trial be retried, but prosecutors elected to seek the life sentence instead.

‘Less Likely Position’

“We felt that we would be in a less likely position to receive a death penalty this time around because we would be retrying it on the basis of one murder, not two,” Deputy Dist. Atty. Frederick G. Stewart said.

He was referring to charges that Adams not only killed Holbrook, but also aided in the fatal stabbing of Joseph Gulvas in Hollywood the same night. The jury could not reach a verdict in the Gulvas slaying, and evidence in that case could not be presented to a new jury if prosecutors retried the penalty phase of Adams’ trial, Stewart said.

Stewart said prosecutors asked that Adams’ sentences be served consecutively rather than concurrently because, in the event the life sentence is reduced on appeal, he would not be eligible for parole as quickly.

Convicted of 8 Charges

Adams was convicted Oct. 7 of first-degree murder, attempted murder and six counts of robbery after witnesses testified that he killed Holbrook, stabbed Holbrook’s wife and robbed five other people in the San Fernando Valley and Hollywood the night of July 22 and early morning hours of July 23, 1982.

Adams testified that he left the Holbrooks alone with an accomplice, James E. Jennings, 24, of Sepulveda before the Holbrooks were stabbed. Adams denied having anything to do with the Gulvas stabbing.

Jennings, who agreed to testify against Adams and a third defendant, was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison for his role in the robberies and killings.

The third defendant, 26-year-old Chester Longmire of Sepulveda, who admitted driving the car used during the crime rampage, was sentenced to 36 years to life in prison.