Man, 73, Pleads Guilty to Killing 2 Over Parked Car

An elderly Southeast San Diego man who killed two men because a car was parked in his driveway pleaded guilty Friday to two counts of voluntary manslaughter.

The plea lodged by Sam Lewis, 73, a retired junk-car dealer, was part of an agreement reached with the district attorney’s office on the eve of Lewis’ scheduled preliminary hearing.

Lewis faces a maximum penalty of 15 years in state prison and a fine of $20,000. Deputy Dist. Atty. Robert N. Eichler said he will seek a prison sentence, and Lewis’ attorney, Milly Durovic, said she will seek probation for him.

Lewis is free on $125,000 bail.

The shootings occurred at about 7:30 p.m. Nov. 22 when Lewis walked out of his house in the 300 block of Gavin Street, .32-caliber revolver in hand, and headed to the home across the street, where residents had recently moved in.

There was a white car blocking Lewis’ driveway, and he intended to ask that it be moved.

During interviews with The Times in January, neighbors said Lewis had become increasingly angry by cars blocking his driveway and ignoring the no-parking sign he had hung on the chain-link gate.

His wife, Bertha, suffers from several aliments, and Lewis wanted the driveway clear in case he had to rush her to the hospital, they said.

Exactly what happened next is in dispute, but there was a confrontation. Lewis fired two shots through the screen door, killing his new neighbor, Sean Nichols, 28, and Nichols’ friend, Robert Rose, 33.

A woman in the front room, Maria Gomez, said in an interview that she begged him not to shoot her. Gomez said Lewis turned and looked at her, then walked away.

The car blocking the driveway didn’t belong to either of the dead men.

Lewis, who has lived in San Diego for 57 years, confessed immediately and was sent to jail, charged with two counts of murder. But it wasn’t long before his friends and neighbors came to his aid, raising bail and enabling Lewis to spend Christmas at his home.

The rallying of support drew much publicity, and criticism from those who knew the victims. There were intimations, re-enforced by Lewis’ lawyer after Friday’s hearing, that the two dead men were drug dealers who got what they deserved.

Nichols’ mother, Martha Cooper, told The Times in January: “There was all this innuendo, all these insinuations, and it was all garbage.”

Filed Wrongful-Death Suit

Nichols’ parents have filed a wrongful-death suit against Lewis, seeking unspecified damages. Cooper was in the courtroom Friday and said it was difficult seeing Lewis there. “Nothing of it is going to bring my son back. Nothing,” Cooper told reporters after the hearing.

“The district attorney is prosecuting the case. We’ll go along with what they decide,” said Nichols’ father, Thomas Cooper.

The parents’ attorney, Peter Doft, said that, if Lewis receives a 15-year sentence, that will effectively be a life sentence because of the man’s age.

Durovic, Lewis’ attorney, maintained that her investigation showed that Rose’s body had traces of methamphetamine, and said Lewis believed drugs were being sold at the house and was afraid the residents of the house were armed. “He believed that Robert Rose and Sean Nichols were going to attack him,” Durovic told reporters.

Police said no weapons were found in the home, and that, although they found unspecified “narcotics” in the home’s back bedroom, there was no evidence that drugs were being sold.

Durovic said Lewis has health problems, including a collapsed lung and arthritis. She said Lewis has also has had both hips replaced with artificial joints.

Municipal Court Judge H. Ronald Domnitz set Lewis’ sentencing for June 16.