Man Convicted of Restaurant Owner’s Slaying During Holdup

After three hours of deliberation, a San Fernando Superior Court jury found a 24-year-old Lake View Terrace man guilty of first degree murder Wednesday in the killing of a Sunland restaurant owner during an attempted robbery.

Ronald Taylor, who was attempting to rob a Pioneer Chicken restaurant on Foothill Boulevard, fatally shot Lewis Lim in the back of the head as Lim tried to flee out the back door in November, 1987.

Lim, 33, a Chinese immigrant, had purchased the fast-food restaurant just two months earlier with money he saved while working as a butcher. His wife, Cindy, bore the couple’s third child a week after her husband’s death.

No Death Penalty

Although the murder occurred during an attempted robbery--a special circumstance that could bring the death penalty--prosecutors decided not to seek Taylor’s execution because they had no witnesses who saw the killing, only the events preceding and following Lim’s death.

Taylor, who was convicted of another robbery in 1984 and of attempting to possess a weapon in prison, under the law must be sentenced to life in state prison without possibility of parole, said Deputy Dist. Atty. Craig Richman. He will be sentenced Aug. 30.

None of Lim’s family, who continue to operate the restaurant, were present to hear the verdict.

Taylor was impassive as the verdict was read, but then told Judge Ronald S. Coen that he wanted to “say his piece” and tell the jurors that “I hope they really found in their hearts that I am guilty.”

Four witnesses--two of Lim’s employees, a customer and a woman who was in the parking lot of the mini-mall--testified during the 3-week trial. Richman argued that their descriptions of Taylor’s actions at the restaurant clearly fit the pattern of a robbery, despite defense contentions that Taylor might have killed Lim for some other reason.

Taylor entered the restaurant about 3:10 p.m. and asked employee Rajinder Kaur for the key to a bathroom located outside the restaurant.

Augustin Dominquez, who was flown in from Guadalajara, Mexico, to testify, said he was in the parking lot and watched as Taylor entered the bathroom, closed the door slightly and peered out into the parking lot. Dominquez said Taylor then went back into the restaurant.

Carried Gun

Kaur, testifying through a Punjabi interpreter, said Taylor came behind the counter with the key in one hand and pointing a gun at her with the other. Lim emerged from the kitchen and began shouting at Taylor, saying he was not allowed in the employee area of the restaurant. Taylor whirled to face Lim and Kaur fled, she said.

Lim was found with a single bullet wound in the head at the back door of the restaurant. He died later that day. No money was taken, officers said.

Taylor was arrested by Los Angeles police more than four months later, in March, 1988, after his palm print was found on the back of the rear-view mirror of a car identified as the getaway car.

The car had been stolen the afternoon of the killing and abandoned afterward. Police said they found items stolen from the car at Taylor’s house.

Maria Duarte testified that she was in the parking lot when she heard shots and saw Taylor run out of the restaurant and speed away in the car.

A second man who sat in the restaurant eating area and served as a lookout during the robbery has not been identified. Taylor has refused to divulge information about his accomplice, who also fled in the getaway car, Richman said.