Gang Member Convicted of Murdering Church Elder

A reputed gang member on Wednesday was convicted of first-degree murder for being an accomplice in the slaying of a church elder from Tustin who was shot to death in a telephone booth as his wife looked on.

Todd Lavera, 23, also was convicted of being an accomplice in the murder of a second man hours after David Thompson, an elder of the Greater Zion Apostolic Church in Santa Ana, was slain April 9, 1987.

A Superior Court jury in Los Angeles deliberated three hours before finding Lavera guilty of two counts each of first-degree murder, attempted murder and robbery.

The jury also found Lavera guilty of a special circumstance allegation, murder during the commission of a robbery, a charge that normally would qualify him for a possible death sentence.

But prosecutors are not seeking a death sentence against Lavera, so he will be sentenced Aug. 18 to life in prison without possibility of parole.

Lavera was a member of the Hoover Crips street gang, according to Deputy Dist. Atty. Mark Arnold.

Sister Rita Sanders of Greater Zion Apostolic Church said Thompson, who was 30 at the time he was killed, lived with his family in Tustin and was a young elder in the church.

“We were praying that they would get what was coming to them,” Sanders said of Lavera’s conviction. “People can’t continue to get away with things like that or they will just continue to happen. It was a cruel thing they did.”

On the night of the killings, Thompson and his wife were traveling with a group from their Santa Ana church. The group was returning from the 50th anniversary celebration of the Bethlehem Temple Apostolic Church in Los Angeles.

The group’s bus had broken down, police said, and Thompson was in a telephone booth calling for help when Lavera and two other men pulled up to rob him and his wife, Namora, who was sitting in a car nearby.

Namora Thompson told police the men accosted her, robbed her and pushed her out of the car. Then they walked up to Thompson and stole money from him, police said. Before leaving, one of the two men allegedly walked back to the telephone booth, and as Thompson was praying, shot him once in the head, according to police.