Local News in Brief : Man Gets 3-Year Term in Slaying Over Drugs
A Newhall man was sentenced Friday to three years in prison for killing an acquaintance after an argument over a $40 cocaine purchase.
San Fernando Superior Court Judge John H. Major imposed the minimum sentence for voluntary manslaughter on John Brian Woods, 20, after a plea bargain with prosecutors. Woods was sentenced for killing William Crane, 25, on Oct. 6.
Woods was originally charged with murder, but the charge was reduced to voluntary manslaughter because the crime was committed “in the heat of passion and in act of self-defense,” Deputy Dist. Atty. Kenneth L. Barshop said.
Crane’s bound body was found on the side of a Santa Clarita road by a passer-by who called California Highway Patrol officers, according to a probation report prepared for the sentencing.
A fight erupted over $40 that Woods owed Crane for cocaine, authorities said. Crane died after Woods repeatedly hit him in the head with a rock, Barshop said. A coroner’s report indicated that Crane was still alive at the time he was bound.
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