Teen Gets 32 Years to Life for Murder of Church Elder

A teen-ager was sentenced Friday to 32 years to life in prison for the robbery and murder of a Tustin church elder who was accosted by three gang members after he stopped at a telephone booth in South-Central Los Angeles to seek help for a disabled church bus.

Andre Kevin Moore, 18, a member of the 74th Street Hoover Crips since the age of 9, pleaded guilty last February in the April 9, 1987, death of David Eugene Thompson, 27, a mail carrier and the father of two small boys.

Thompson, an elder at the Greater Zion Apostolic Church in Santa Ana, was praying with his hands raised and his eyes closed when he was shot to death by one of Moore’s co-defendants, Tracy Carter, 19, according to court documents.

Surrendered His Wallet

The victim had surrendered his wallet, and his wife, Namora, who had been waiting in the car, had handed $10 to Moore. The couple were returning from a church function by car when they passed the broken-down bus in which other church members were riding.

As part of a plea-bargain, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Candace Cooper on Friday dismissed separate murder charges in connection with the fatal shooting of Leopoldo Salgado and the wounding of Manuel S. Figueroa during a robbery attempt two hours after Thompson was killed.

In imposing sentence, Cooper rejected a defense request that Moore, known as “Li’l Dray,” be placed in the California Youth Authority because of his age and small stature.

Deputy Public Defender Michael R. Belter said his client, though convicted in adult court, should be “given a chance to mature and toughen up.” Putting Moore in prison would be like “throwing this young kid into a den of wolves,” the attorney argued.

“I think you are quite tough enough as it stands,” Cooper told Moore. Noting that he had been accused of fighting and making threats while in Juvenile Hall, the judge said other young inmates needed to be protected from him.

“This was an extremely violent situation against an extremely helpless person who posed no threat to you or any of your co-defendants,” the judge said.

‘They’re Sick’

In a letter to the court, Thompson’s wife wrote that her religious faith had taught her “how not to hate these people. They’re sick, and they need help.” But, according to a probation report, Namora Thompson said the agreed-upon sentence for Moore is appropriate.

Moore, a high school dropout who was hospitalized in 1986 for alcohol and drug abuse, told Deputy Probation Officer James A. McAfee that “he had no idea that Carter was going to kill” Thompson,” according to court documents.

But McAfee noted that Moore is believed to have been the triggerman in the Salgado killing. A police detective told the probation officer that Salgado was killed because it was Moore’s “turn to show that he too is a tough guy. He wanted to do a killing.”

Separate trials are pending for Moore’s co-defendants, Carter and Todd Lavera, 23. Carter is charged with special circumstances that could make him eligible for the death penalty.