14-Year-Old Is Sentenced to CYA Term in Sniper Slaying

A 14-year-old Pacoima boy convicted of second-degree murder in the sniper slaying of a 26-year-old truck driver in April was sentenced Tuesday to California Youth Authority custody, despite emotional pleas for leniency from his family and friends and the entreaties of clergymen.

According to court testimony, the boy fired the gun on a dare from another 14-year-old, who also was convicted of second-degree murder in Sylmar Juvenile Court in July.

The other boy had loaded a .22-caliber rifle and handed it to his friend, investigators said. Then, from a second-story apartment window, the two tracked the movements of Mark Rodney Sanford of La Crescenta as he detached a trailer from a truck in a parking lot next to the apartment building. The boy sentenced Tuesday fired and killed Sanford, “target practicing on a human being,” said Deputy Dist. Atty. Janice L. Maurizi.

Both youths “aided and abetted” the shooting, Maurizi said. The other youth, sentenced to California Youth Authority in August, also was convicted of a sniper attack on an RTD bus in which a 13-year-old girl was wounded.

Psychiatric Treatment Sought

Albert M. Meister, the court-appointed attorney for the boy who fired the shot killing Sanford, asked that his client be remanded to the custody of his aunt and uncle or sentenced to a psychiatric treatment facility.

Reports indicated that the boy had had behavioral problems and had been transferred to several schools during the past years, Maurizi said. The boy also had been reprimanded for fighting while in custody at Juvenile Hall.

Family and friends, however, portrayed him as a religious and sensitive youth and repeatedly called the shooting an accident.

“He’s always been a child that’s caring,” said his mother, Cherilon Ann Blunt. “As far as what happened, he’s very remorseful. He never in his life wanted to see someone hurt.”

“He just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time and with the wrong person,” said his aunt, Debra Arleen Bell-Savage.

Angered by ‘Whitewash’

Maurizi reacted angrily to this characterization.

“I am appalled at the attempts to whitewash this crime,” she said. “This was not an accident--the court found it to be a willful, premeditated and deliberate murder. He took aim and pulled the trigger.”

The youth cried intermittently as family members spoke, and sobbed quietly as Sylmar Juvenile Court Judge Morton Rochman sentenced him to the California Youth Authority, to be released on or before his 25th birthday. The exact release date will be determined by a CYA review board.

The boy’s main concern was whether God--and Sanford’s parents--would find it in their hearts to forgive him, his mother said.

Leslie and Charles Sanford, the slain man’s parents, sat impassively, clasping each other’s hands, while a succession of 13 witnesses spoke.

“There’s no satisfaction in it,” said Charles Sanford. “It doesn’t matter what they give him now. It doesn’t bring our boy back.”

Despite the shooting, Charles Sanford, a retired police officer, said he still believes in the right to bear arms.

“Mark liked guns,” he said. “He was raised around guns. But he knew how to deal with them and use them safely.”