Gang Member in Brawl at Courthouse Given 2 Years

A reputed gang member was sentenced Tuesday to two years in prison in connection with a brawl last April at the Compton Courthouse in which three jurors were attacked.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Robert T. Altman chided the defendant, Paul David Herbert, 21, for “taking the laws of the streets into the halls of the courthouse.” He said the crime was too significant to warrant probation, even though no one was seriously injured.

“Coming to the courthouse to intimidate witnesses is simply unacceptable in our society,” Altman said.

Herbert, 21, and his brother, Robin Darryl Herbert, 24, were convicted Nov. 5 in a non-jury trial of five felonies, including assault, conspiracy and dissuading a witness by force. Robin Herbert was arrested while free on $5,000 bail and failed to appear for sentencing Tuesday.

The Herberts were among a group of men who went to the court building April 24 and 28 in an effort to intimidate witnesses in a case arising from a shoot-out earlier that month at Locke High School in South Los Angeles.

Although a fight broke out on the first visit between one of the witnesses and one of the Herbert brothers, no arrests were made that day. A melee began on the second occasion after gang members spotted the witnesses they were looking for and began attacking people who were in the way, including the jurors, Deputy Dist. Atty. Anthony R. Gaston said.

Last month, nine other gang members pleaded guilty to assault and conspiracy charges and were sentenced to either state prison or jail terms. Two juveniles arrested in the case were acquitted, Gaston said.

William Pierce, 23, one of the defendants in the school shoot-out case, was sentenced to three years. Sentenced to two years were Louis Carter, 23; Carl E. Gowdy, 18; Cliffon Beo, 20; Troy Green, 19.

Sentenced to County Jail for one year were Sam Lockhart, 20; Theatis Savannah, 21; Brian Brown, 21, and Frederick C. Green, 21.

At Tuesday’s hearing, Gaston asked for a maximum three-year sentence for Paul Herbert, telling Altman that after the courthouse brawl, he had problems getting witnesses in other gang cases to come to court to testify.

“I see the damage that gang members do on a daily basis--not only the damage in the streets but also the fear that they inflict upon people when they’re faced with having to come to court to testify against a member of a gang,” said Gaston, a member of the district attorney’s hard-core gang prosecution unit.

But Herbert’s attorney, Paul Horgan, said that this was his client’s first conviction and that he was only “peripherally involved” in the incident.