Southland : Life Term in Officers’ Bomb Deaths

A North Hollywood makeup artist was sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole today for killing two Los Angeles police bomb experts trying to disarm a bomb found in his garage.

Donald Morse, 39, was convicted last month of two counts of murder stemming from the deaths of Detective Arleigh McCree, 46, commander of the LAPD bomb squad, and Officer Ronald Ball, 43.

Before his sentencing, Morse held up a Bible and told Superior Court Judge John H. Major he had tried to live his life by its teachings. “I can’t think of any reason I would harm anyone,” he told the judge. “In my heart and mind and conscience, I am not a murderer.”