Man Gets Death for Role in Alexander Family Slayings

Darren Charles Williams, a Los Angeles gang member, was sentenced to death Thursday for masterminding the 1984 mistaken-identity slayings of four relatives of Kermit Alexander, former UCLA and pro football star.

The sentencing of Williams, 27, by Los Angeles Superior Court Commissioner Florence-Marie Cooper, closed the book on the criminal trials of three contract killers who participated in the execution-style murders of Alexander’s mother, Ebora, 58; her daughter, Dietra, 24, and her grandsons Damani Garner, 13, and Damon Bonner, 8.

“I think it’s been a very successful prosecution,” Deputy Dist. Atty. Sterling E. Norris said afterward. “It shows that justice does work, at least in some instances.”

Triggerman Tiequon Aundray Cox, 21, was sentenced to death last year, and Horace Burns, 22, who waited outside in a van, is serving life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Williams was charged with having hired his co-defendants to help him kill a neighbor of the Alexander family for $50,000. Williams and Cox entered the wrong house, however, and Cox gunned down the victims, three of whom were in bed.

As Williams looked on calmly in the courtroom Thursday, Cooper sternly declared that he was “physically present in the residence with a loaded weapon” and that, even if he fired no bullets, “this factor is far outweighed by (his) management and control of all events prior to the shooting.”

After the slayings, Cooper added, Williams collected the $50,000 from an uncharged individual, took his estranged wife to a hotel for the night and purchased a car for her the next morning with part of the contract money.

As he was led out of the courtroom by bailiffs to be taken to San Quentin State Prison, the defendant appeared to smile and swagger.

Meanwhile, members of Alexander’s family, who had sat patiently through the trials of the three defendants, sobbed quietly as the court session concluded.

Damon’s mother, Daphine Bonner, 33, told reporters: “I’m really kind of empty, the same feeling I had after they got killed.

‘It’s Very Lonely’

“If you could just take and turn back the hands of time. I wish that at this point. But I know that it can’t happen,” she continued. “It’s very lonely without my sister and my child. It’s a daily struggle for me. Not a day goes by without my other children talking about missing one or the other or their grandmother.”

Williams, convicted in December after a three-week trial, had acknowledged in a taped police interview that he was at the scene of the crime, but he denied any involvement in the shootings.

The trial jury deadlocked 10 to 2 on whether Williams should receive the death penalty. A second jury recommended in June that Williams die in the gas chamber.

Norris, who prosecuted all three defendants, said Thursday that “there is still a pending investigation” of the individual who allegedly hired Williams to carry out the murder contract.

Norris said he was not surprised by Williams’ courtroom demeanor because “he always swaggers; he always smiles . . . (even though he) shows no remorse.”

The prosecutor attributed the killings to the defendants’ need for cash to support their sale and use of drugs.

“This innocent family that was executed should certainly serve as a warning that as long as we allow cocaine and gangs to function, people are not safe,” Norris said.