Local News in Brief : Man Convicted in Murder-for-Hire Plot
A Torrance Superior Court jury convicted a 27-year-old man of killing a Hawthorne woman more than five years ago in a murder-for-hire plot that was allegedly designed to win control of a water delivery business that the woman owned near Twentynine Palms.
Peter A. Leach, convicted Friday, will face life in prison without the possibility of parole when he is sentenced Jan. 20 for shooting Catherine Stroup, 45, inside her Hawthorne apartment.
Leach was allegedly joined in the scheme by his brother, Paul, whose murder trial is set to begin later this month.
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