Two Plead Guilty in Death
Two men pleaded guilty Friday to involuntary manslaughter in the death of a worker who was killed when an unreinforced brick wall collapsed on him and his brother in Los Angeles.
Under a plea bargain with prosecutors, James Chung Lee, 51, the owner of a building where the wall collapsed, and Charlie Wilson, 53, who hired the workers to have bricks removed from the building as part of a remodeling project, will be sentenced to 90 days in County Jail and placed on three years’ probation. Eight misdemeanor violations of the state labor code will be dismissed at sentencing in Superior Court June 28.
Dist. Atty. Ira Reiner said Hilario Chavez, 31, was killed, and his brother, Anacleto, 43, was seriously injured when the unreinforced brick wall collapsed on the two men at 8514 S. Vermont Ave. in February, 1987.
Lee and Wilson ignored repeated warnings that the site was unsafe and hired day laborers off the street to remove the bricks instead of paying a contractor $8,000 to clear the site properly, Reiner said.
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