Partner of Robber Slain by Policeman Is Guilty of Murder

A Los Angeles man was convicted of first-degree murder by an Orange County Superior Court jury Wednesday in an unusual case in which his crime partner was killed by a police officer.

Christopher M. Sheehan, 23, who faces a possible sentence of 30 years to life, was accused of playing an active role when his partner in a Huntington Beach robbery, Thomas A. Oglesby, 21, of Burbank, was shot and killed by a police sergeant.

‘Provocative Act’ Statute

While convictions under the “provocative act” murder statute are not new to California, Chief Deputy Dist. Atty. James Enright said Sheehan’s is the first such Orange County case in his 25 years in the district attorney’s office.

Sheehan and Oglesby were both on parole from prison for robbery and burglary sentences when they robbed the Things for Your Head store on Pacific Coast Highway in Huntington Beach last April 13. An employee hit a silent alarm, and a police dispatcher sent out a call for help.

According to testimony at Sheehan’s trial, Sgt. Edward Deuel was four doors away having a cup of coffee at a restaurant. He ran to the store, saw Sheehan inside and ordered him out. Witnesses said Sheehan yelled at Deuel that he had no business bothering him because he had not been doing anything. Oglesby then came out, and Deuel held a gun on the two of them while he placed a radio call for help.

Sheehan distracted the officer, according to witnesses, by starting to reach inside the waistband of his pants, and Oglesby fired at Deuel with a .45-caliber pistol. The first bullet caught Deuel in the chest and lodged in his bulletproof vest. Oglesby tried to fire again but his gun jammed. Deuel returned at least two shots and hit Oglesby, who died at a hospital a few hours later. Sheehan shot at the officer with a sawed-off shotgun he had tucked inside his pants, witnesses said, but missed.

Sheehan and a third participant who was driving Oglesby’s car escaped. Sheehan was caught 10 days later by authorities in Kern County.

It was Sheehan’s father who tipped off police that he may have been involved. Sheehan’s father had called police the day before and said his son and Oglesby had stolen some guns from him.

At his trial, Sheehan admitted his involvement in the robbery but denied he did anything that led to the gun battle.

Jurors, however, deliberated just a little more than one day before convicting him.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Rick Toohey, who prosecuted Sheehan, said that although the provocative act theory is rarely used, the law makes it clear that “people who initiate gun battles are responsible for the fallen dead, whether they are friend or foe.”

It was not Sheehan’s participation in the robbery or firing of the shotgun that caused prosecutors to charge him with murder, Toohey said, but his lying to the officer and attempting to distract him while Oglesby fired. The getaway driver could not be similarly charged, he said.

Toohey declined to name the man suspected of driving Oglesby’s car because other charges connected with the robbery may be filed against him.

But Toohey said the suspect is now in state prison on a parole violation after Sheehan’s shotgun was found in his possession.

Judge Jean H. Rheinheimer set sentencing for March 10.