Defendant Gets Life in Death of Officers

A North Hollywood makeup artist was sentenced Wednesday to life in prison without parole in the 1986 deaths of two Los Angeles Police Department explosives experts.

Donald Morse, 39, was sentenced by San Fernando Superior Court Judge John H. Major. Morse was convicted April 3 of two counts of first-degree murder and one count of possessing explosives in the deaths of the officers, killed while trying to dismantle a pipe bomb at his home.

Killed in the Feb. 8, 1986, explosion were Detective Arleigh McCree, 46, commander of the police bomb squad, and Officer Ronald Ball, 43. They were the first Los Angeles bomb squad members to be killed in the line of duty.

Morse’s attorney, Bernard J. Rosen, said his client will appeal. Rosen contends that the judge erred when he refused to allow evidence suggesting that the officers caused their own deaths through negligence.