‘Cotton Club’ Figure Charged in 2nd Killing
One of four “Cotton Club” defendants named in the 1983 execution of Broadway promoter Roy Radin was charged Tuesday with a second and apparently unrelated murder.
Former security guard Alex Marti, who is already fighting the Radin murder charge in a preliminary hearing under way in Los Angeles Municipal Court, was charged in the unrelated robbery and killing of Rene Vega on Aug. 4, 1987.
He and two co-defendants, Scott Hadley Ashley and Rod Brennan Columbo, are scheduled to be arraigned Thursday on murder charges in the Vega case.
Marti, ex-security guards William Mentzer and Robert Lowe and reputed cocaine dealer Karen DeLayne “Lanie” Greenberger allegedly shot Radin to death in connection with a drug deal. Investigators believe that the drug deal and execution may have been part of a plan to raise money for production of the movie “Cotton Club.”
Another former security guard, Carl Plzak, testified during the preliminary hearing Monday and Tuesday and linked all four defendants to the murder in a desolate canyon 65 miles northeast of Los Angeles.
Deputy District Atty. David Conn’s first witness, “Cotton Club” producer Robert Evans, was excused Monday after he invoked his 5th Amendment right against self-incrimination.
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