Local News in Brief : 2 Jailed in Worker Death

Two men were sentenced Tuesday to 90 days in County Jail for the death of a worker when an unreinforced brick wall collapsed on him and his brother.

James Chung Lee, 51, the owner of the Los Angeles building where the wall collapsed, was also fined $2,105 by Superior Court Judge Marsha Revel.

Lee was previously ordered to pay an additional $10,000 fine to the defunct California Occupational Safety and Health Administration, which helped investigate the case, Deputy Dist. Atty. Fred Macksoud said.

Lee and co-defendant Charlie Wilson, 53, who hired day laborers to remove bricks from the building as part of a remodeling project, were also placed on three years’ probation.

The two men pleaded guilty May 13 to involuntary manslaughter in a plea bargain with prosecutors in which eight misdemeanor violations of the state labor code were dismissed at sentencing.

Hilario Chavez, 31, was killed, and his brother, Anacleto, 43, was seriously injured in February, 1987, when an unreinforced brick wall collapsed on the two workers at 8514 S. Vermont Ave. Lee and Wilson ignored repeated warnings that the site was unsafe and hired day laborers to avoid paying a contractor $8,000 to clear the site properly, prosecutors said.