Oceanside : Ex-Marine Guilty in Troiani Slaying

Russell A. Harrison, a 22-year-old ex-Marine who is a defendant in a murder-for-hire plot by a Marine staff sergeant’s wife to kill her husband, pleaded guilty Friday to first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder in North County Superior Court in Vista.

In exchange for Harrison’s guilty plea, Philip Walden, North County supervising deputy district attorney, dropped charges of special circumstances--lying in wait and murder for financial gain--which could have brought a death sentence on Harrison.

Walden said the decision to drop the charges was made by San Diego County District Atty. Edwin Miller. He said it was “a very difficult decision” that was dictated by earlier sentences handed down against Laura Troiani, the wife of the murder victim; Staff Sgt. Carlo Troiani, and against the alleged trigger man in the August, l984, murder.

Laura Troiani was convicted on all charges by a jury and sentenced to life in prison without chance of parole. Mark James Schulz, the alleged slayer of Troiani, who was shot to death on an isolated stretch of road near Camp Pendleton, received the same sentence as Laura Troiani for his part in the murder.

Harrison will be sentenced Jan. 7 and is expected to receive a term of 26 years to life. He would be eligible for parole after serving 19 years in prison.