Local News in Brief : Ex-Officer Gets Life in Contract Killing
Former Los Angeles Police Officer Robert Von Villas was sentenced Wednesday to life in prison without the possibility of parole in the 1983 contract slaying of a Northridge businessman.
A Superior Court judge sentenced Von Villas, 44, of Simi Valley, despite claims by Villas and his attorneys that at least four of the jurors who convicted him of murder in November were influenced by discussions outside the jury room.
Another former Los Angeles police officer, Richard Herman Ford, 48, was also convicted of murder and was sentenced in March to life in prison without parole in the slaying of the businessman, Thomas Weed, 52.
The two former Devonshire Division officers accepted $20,000 from Weed’s ex-wife, Janie E. Ogilvie in exchange for killing him, authorities said. Ogilvie was allowed to plead guilty to second-degree murder in exchange for her testimony and was sentenced to 15 years to life.
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