Jury Convicts Two Men of $285,000 Robbery at Coliseum in 1983

Two men have been convicted of robbing the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum of $285,000 in 1983, the only such robbery ever committed there. A Superior Court jury on Friday found Steven Louis Jackson, 30, and David Spellman, age unknown, both of South Los Angeles, guilty of four counts of robbery.

They remain in custody pending an April 25 sentencing hearing, when Judge Dion Morrow could send them to state prison.

The jury has not yet decided the guilt or innocence of a third defendant in the case, Haley James, 32, of San Francisco, and will resume its deliberations Tuesday.

Prosecutor Reid Rose said the three defendants were involved in the armed robbery of a Coliseum money-counting room on Oct. 30, 1983, after a professional football game between the Los Angeles Raiders and the Seattle Seahawks.

Rose said Spellman first knocked on the door of the counting room and asked for an employee who had provided the defendants--under the threat of death--with information about security measures there. Off-duty Los Angeles Police Officer Michael Watson, working as the head of security at the Coliseum, answered and told Spellman that the employee was not there.

Spellman left, but 10 minutes later, Jackson and James knocked on the door and when Watson opened it placed a cocked .45-caliber pistol in his face, the prosecutor said. They then forced Watson and several other employees into a room where two safes were located, and emptied an open safe of seven or eight bags filled with concession receipts.

“They took as much money as they could possibly carry,” Hefferman said. “The only thing they left was coins.”

The employees were forced to lie on the floor and were told that if they left the room they would be killed. One employee managed to set off a silent alarm but the robbers escaped.

Spellman was arrested that December, James the following February and Jackson in August, 1984, Rose said.

At their trial, Watson identified all three defendants, and Rose introduced evidence matching fingerprints found on a door in the counting room to Jackson and James.