Businessman Convicted in Partner’s Death

David Burton, a Los Angeles businessman who operated a thread company in the city’s garment district, has been convicted of first-degree murder and conspiracy in arranging the 1983 contract killing of his partner, who had threatened to talk to authorities about an alleged insurance fraud.

Burton, 58, was arrested in 1985, more than two years after he reported finding the body of his partner, Donald Serra, 43, in the warehouse of their Georgia Thread Co. at 1106 E. Pico Blvd. Serra’s throat had been slit.

Hours after he said he discovered the bloody corpse, Burton was hospitalized, complaining of acute chest pains that he took as signs of a heart attack. Authorities, however, said that he was a suspect in Serra’s death from the beginning.

The events leading to Serra’s death began in February, 1983, when the two partners reported that thieves had stolen $225,000 worth of thread from their company, prosecutors said. An insurance company paid a claim for the loss, but Serra became nervous after being questioned by state Department of Insurance investigators.

Prosecutors said Serra, a junior partner in the thread company, told Burton that he did not want to go to jail for insurance fraud and threatened to cooperate with authorities.

Burton then approached the thread company’s product manager, Michael J. Benjamin, 44, of Whittier, and told Benjamin to arrange to have Serra killed, authorities said. Benjamin allegedly recruited James B. Goodrum, 43, of Maywood, a burly man known as “Bear,” at a South Gate bar frequented by motorcycle gangs.

Goodrum went to the Pico Boulevard warehouse where he and Serra argued, Goodrum told police. Serra pulled a knife, Goodrum said, and during a struggle, “the knife nicked him on the throat.”

Deputy Dist. Atty. Steven M. Barshop said Burton faces a sentence of life in prison without parole as a result of Monday’s conviction.

Goodrum pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and Benjamin pleaded guilty to second-degree murder, Barshop said.