Gang Member Sentenced in School Slaying

As tearful relatives of the slain Antoine (Tony) Thompson looked on, a sullen-appearing gang member was sentenced Wednesday to 16 years to life in state prison for having shot the dyslexic 18-year-old in the back in a Fairfax High School corridor.

“It won’t bring Tony back--never,” said Thompson’s grandmother, Albirtha Anderson, after the sentencing of Andre (Psycho) West, 18. “But at least these gangsters will be off the street where they cannot harm another person for a number of years. . . . I hope this puts a message out (to the community).”

The sentencing of West to the maximum prison term marked the conclusion of court proceedings in the September, 1986, tragedy, which took place when Thompson, a recent high school graduate, returned to campus to visit a teacher who had helped him overcome his educational handicap so he could enter college.

Thompson, who was not a gang member, was shot by West during an argument over the use of a pay telephone, as West’s Fairfax High schoolmate and fellow gang member, Shawn Boykin, yelled “Gat him, cuz!” gang jargon for “shoot him.”

‘Very Little Remorse’

Boykin, 19, who along with West pleaded guilty to second-degree murder charges last October, was also sentenced last month to a term of 16 years to life. Unlike West, however, Boykin will be incarcerated until he is 25 at a California Youth Authority facility and then transferred to a state prison.

In West’s case, a CYA diagnostic report concluded that he was not suitable for CYA placement since he “exhibits very little remorse for his wrongdoings and seems to have an emotional blindness for the victim,” Deputy Dist. Atty. Loren Naiman said in court.

Under terms of the plea, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge David A. Horowitz could have limited the sentence to a CYA commitment, whereby West would have been released when he reached age 25 and had his criminal record expunged. But instead, Horowitz, without comment, imposed the maximum sentence urged by Naiman, who termed the shooting “sad and terrible.”

“It is a case that speaks highly for the victim who grew up in the same atmosphere and escaped from gangs by avoiding them,” Naiman said. “And it speaks very little of the two men who are involved in this case who grew up in the same atmosphere and decided to join the gangs and kill.”

‘Unfortunate Situation’

West did not speak at the sentencing, and his lawyer, Charles E. Lloyd, said only that the shooting was “an unfortunate situation.”

In a probation report, West, who had a previous arrest record for grand theft and possession of a knife at school, termed the shooting accidental. His hand squeezed the trigger, he said, as Thompson tried to take the gun from him.

Naiman, however, said the charges would have been increased to first-degree murder charges except for a lack of evidence to prove premeditation. While West can apply for parole after serving eight years, the prosecutor said, he could also remain in prison much longer because state authorities “can keep him for as long as they felt necessary.”

After the sentencing, Thompson’s mother, La Tricia, praised Naiman and Horowitz but criticized the state’s laws on murder, saying she believes that assailants should be held liable for first-degree murder “when (they) take a gun to school.”

Although the sentencing will allow her “to get on with life,” La Tricia Thompson said, that life will never be the same.

“My family has been devastated. We have been through a total hell for the last year and a half. I can’t describe that,” she said. “(But) I hope that nobody (else) has to go through this.”

For a year after her son’s slaying, Thompson was unable to cope with work and was forced to take a leave of absence from her post as a social worker for developmentally disabled children at Harbor Regional Center. Her parents, Albirtha and Lewis Anderson, who raised Antoine, have also been ill with grief, Thompson said.

“It was such a senseless act,” declared Albirtha Anderson after the sentencing. “It destroyed a nice . . . youngster.”

Thompson, a teacher’s aide for the Foundation for the Junior Blind, was killed just after having visited his former teacher, Linda Brooks, to seek advice on courses at West Los Angeles College. Brooks, a special education teacher, had worked closely with Thompson to enable him to overcome speech and reading impairments.