Trial in Murder of Church Elder to Begin Monday

Trial begins Monday for a former Los Angeles gang member accused of the murder of a Tustin church elder and a second man killed in a 1987 crime spree in which prosecutors said three young men terrorized, robbed and shot the victims to obtain money to buy beer.

The trial of Todd Lavera, 24, is the first of two to be held in the slayings of David Eugene Thompson of Tustin and Leopoldo Salgado of Los Angeles, both of whom were killed in the South Central area within 90 minutes of each other in April, 1987. A companion of Lavera will be tried at a later date in connection with the slayings.

Lavera is charged with two murders, but prosecutors said they would not seek the death penalty because he did not fire the fatal shots in either killing. Instead, Deputy Dist. Atty. Mark Arnold said he would ask that Lavera be imprisoned for life without parole.

Felony Murder Rule

Arnold said Lavera was being tried “under the felony murder rule, which says that if a killing occurs during the course of a robbery, then the killing is first-degree murder.”

On the night of the killings, Thompson and his wife were with a group from the Greater Zion Apostolic Church in Tustin that was returning in a school bus from the 50th anniversary celebration of the Bethlehem Temple Apostolic Church in Los Angeles, where the choir from the Orange County church sang.

Thompson, a mail-cart driver who worked the overnight shift at the central post office in Santa Ana on Sunflower Avenue, had taken the night off to attend the celebration.

Jury selection is expected to begin Monday in Los Angeles criminal court.

Also implicated in the slayings were Tracy Lavell Carter, 20, who will be tried separately at a later date, and Andre Moore, 19. Both are from Los Angeles. Moore, who was a juvenile at the time of the slayings, was bound over for trial as an adult but pleaded guilty to one count of first-degree murder. He was sentenced to a term of 25 years to life.

Thompson, 27, an elder at the Tustin church, was shot and killed in a telephone booth at the corner of Slauson Avenue and Broadway at 11:40 p.m. April 9. Their bus had been disabled and police said he had stopped to call for help when Lavera and two other men pulled up to rob Thompson and his wife.

Namora Thompson, 38, was sitting in the couple’s 1986 Hyundai automobile when the men accosted her, took $10 out of her purse and pushed her out of the car, police said.

Prosecutors said the men then walked up to Thompson, who was in the phone booth, and stole money from him. Before leaving, Carter allegedly walked back to the telephone booth and as Thompson was praying, shot him once in the head.

Arnold said they then took the Thompson car and drove to a liquor store where they bought beer and cigarettes before returning to Lavera’s house. They returned to the liquor store later and encountered Salgado, 48, and Manuel Figueroa, sitting in a car outside.

According to Arnold, Moore approached Salgado and Figueroa and demanded money. Figueroa refused and Moore opened fire, hitting Figueroa several times as he sat in his car. Arnold said that Moore then gave the gun to Carter who fired more shots at the men, one of which may have been the fatal round that hit Salgado in the chest.

Figueroa later recovered from his wounds and may be called on to testify in the trial. Arnold said the suspects were members of the Hoover Crips street gang at the time of the shootings, but that their gang affiliations were not relevant to the trial.

Joe Ingber, Lavera’s defense attorney, said he would present witnesses to testify that Lavera was not involved in the actual shootings and that he did not instigate the actions that led to the deaths of Thompson and Salgado.

“In neither one of the homicides is Todd Lavera in possession of any gun that is operable,” Ingber said. “He did not shoot Rev. Thompson. He did not shoot Mr. Salgado.

“The prosecution’s theory is that in some way he aided and abetted Carter and Moore. They will not deny that Lavera did not shoot Rev. Thompson or Mr. Salgado. The best the people will offer may be evidence that Lavera maybe had a toy gun that may have been used in the robbery of Mrs. Thompson.

“This, pure and simple, is a death that occurred during an attempted robbery or it isn’t,” he added. “It has nothing to do with gangs.”