1 Robber Gets Prison in Pharmacist’s Slaying

A 29 year-old transient was sentenced to 25 years to life in state prison Tuesday for her part in the killing of a Northridge pharmacist who was robbed and shot while his 22-year-old daughter watched.

San Fernando Superior Court Judge Dana Senit Henry imposed the sentence on Dawn Elayne Ayres, who pleaded guilty in December to one count of second-degree murder and two counts of robbery in the February, 1984, slaying of Robert James Mallory, 62, owner of Plaza West Pharmacy on Parthenia Street.

Ayres and an accomplice escaped with drugs and an unknown amount of money, according to police reports, but were arrested the next month in Venice.

Jack Oscar Leo, 35, accused of firing the shotgun blast that killed Mallory, is charged with first-degree murder in the course of a robbery and faces the possibility of the death penalty, according to Deputy Dist. Atty. Myron L. Jenkins.

Ayres will be asked to testify at Leo’s trial, scheduled to begin Jan. 20, Jenkins said.

According to a probation report prepared for the sentencing, Ayres said that Mallory grabbed her from behind during the holdup and they struggled over a handgun she was carrying. When her accomplice saw the scuffle, he fired his gun, but it was “not meant that anybody be injured” Ayres said, according to the report.