Suspect Also Convicted in $17,500 Robbery : Transient Guilty in Slaying of Jeweler

A transient was convicted Wednesday of the robbery and murder of a Sunland jeweler who was shot to death in front of his wife.

After two hours of deliberation, a San Fernando Superior Court jury convicted Dwight Raymond Meals, 44, of first-degree murder and three counts of robbery.

Meals was accused of killing Charles Agero, 52, in his Whitegate Avenue home on Feb. 15, 1985, and stealing $15,000 worth of jewelry and $2,500 in cash, according to court testimony.

Two others involved in the robbery already have pleaded guilty and are serving sentences in state prison. Ronald Cyril Ryan, 47, a transient, is serving 27 years to life for Agero’s murder. Sandra Hill, 36, of Lake View Terrace, is serving a three-year sentence for robbery. Charges against a fourth suspect were dropped.

Defense attorney Donald M. Rosenstock said in his closing argument that Meals shot Agero in self-defense. But Deputy Dist. Atty. Rosalie Morton said that the robbery and “execution-style murder” were premeditated.

‘No Question About Guilt’

“There was really no question about guilt and the defense didn’t have much of a case,” jury foreman Rudolph L. Starcer said after the verdict, which followed a seven-week trial.

According to police reports, the slaying occurred about 10:30 a.m. when three men, dressed in brown shirts and hats, came to Agero’s security-gated home carrying a cardboard box. Agero’s 17-year-old daughter, Barbara, glanced through a peephole in the door and thought they were deliverymen, the reports said.

The men pushed their way into the home with guns drawn and began ransacking the house, Barbara Agero told police.

Rosenstock maintained that the men came to retrieve cocaine they arranged to buy from Agero. When Agero reached for a gun, one of the men held him on the floor and Meals shot Agero in the chest while his wife, Marleny Agero, watched, Morton said.

The men tied up Agero’s wife and two daughters, then fled with the jewels and cash, Morton said.

Rosenstock argued that the robbery “was something of an afterthought.”

Judge Bernard J. Kamins scheduled Meals’ sentencing for Jan. 22. Meals could receive up to 27 years to life in state prison.