Robber Who Shot Victim Gets 17 Years

An employee of a limousine service owned by a man accused of killing a North Hollywood police detective was sentenced Monday to the maximum 17 years in state prison for armed robbery in an unrelated incident.

At the sentencing, Michael Barnelle Mason, 30, of Los Angeles told San Fernando Superior Court Judge John H. Major that he believed he received the maximum term for a North Hollywood robbery because of his association with Daniel Steven Jenkins. Jenkins, 30, is accused of ambushing and killing Los Angeles Police Detective Thomas C. Williams last Oct. 31, several hours after the officer testified against Jenkins in a robbery trial.

The judge dismissed that accusation and Deputy Dist. Atty. Maureen Duffy-Lewis said that Mason, who had two previous armed robbery convictions, earned the sentence “on his own.”

Mason pleaded guilty last month to the gunpoint robbery of Lubonir Brancher, the owner of a North Hollywood check cashing business. Brancher resisted and was shot twice by Mason, who fled with about $1,000, a probation report said.

Brancher has recovered from his gunshot wounds, the report said.

A passer-by saw the April 15 robbery and gave police the license-plate number of Mason’s vehicle, the probation report said. Mason was arrested later that day.

Mason had worked as a limousine driver for the Sir Dan’s Limo Service, owned by Jenkins. Jenkins is accused of shooting Williams as the officer was picking up his 6-year-old son from a Canoga Park child care center.