58-Year Term Given in Church Elder’s Killing

A reputed gang member was sentenced Tuesday to 58 years to life in prison for two slayings, including the murder of a Santa Ana church elder who was gunned down as he prayed in a telephone booth.

Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge J. Michael Byrne sentenced Todd Lavera, 25, for his role as an accomplice in the first-degree murders of Leopoldo Salgado of Los Angeles and David Eugene Thompson, an elder of the Greater Zion Apostolic Church in Santa Ana.

Thompson, 27, of Tustin and Salgado, 48, were robbed and killed within 90 minutes of each other in South-Central Los Angeles on April 9, 1987, during an attempt by Lavera and two other young men to obtain money to buy beer.

“There was a lack of any awareness of killing one person and then, a few minutes later, killing another person almost the same way,” Byrne told Lavera. “The whole set of circumstances is outrageous.”

Byrne also ordered Lavera to pay $10,000 each to the Salgado and Thompson families as restitution. Thompson’s widow, Namora, and his two children now live in Orange.

“This is justice,” Namora Thompson said after the sentencing. “It was really senseless, the whole thing. At least it will keep him off the street from hurting other innocent people.”

Lavera, who was not the triggerman, had faced life in prison without the possibility of parole. But Byrne reduced the punishment, saying there was not enough evidence during trial to show that Lavera intended to kill Thompson and Salgado.

In June, a Superior Court jury recommended that Lavera be given the life sentence after finding him guilty of a special circumstance allegation, murder during the commission of a robbery. The charge qualifies the defendant for the death penalty or life without parole.

Although Byrne threw out the special circumstance finding, the prosecutor, Deputy Dist. Atty. Mark Arnold, did not oppose the ruling and said the 58-year-to-life sentence was the maximum allowable. With credit for time already served, Lavera, a reputed member of the Hoover Gangster Crips street gang, could get out of prison in about 34 years.

“Byrne gave me everything I wanted,” Arnold said outside court. “They are vermin that prey upon the innocent of society.”

Defense attorney Joe Ingber called the sentence too harsh, considering that Lavera was an accomplice and that one of the gunmen, Andre Moore, 19, was sentenced to 32 years to life in prison. He said he will appeal the case partly on the difference in punishment.

“What this says is that Lavera should be punished more because he went to trial,” Ingber said.

Moore, who was 16 when the killings occurred, pleaded guilty to the first-degree murder of Thompson in exchange for dismissal of the charges from the Salgado killing.

Arnold said Moore was a juvenile when the crimes were committed and therefore did not qualify for special circumstance allegations. He also said Moore’s plea made it unnecessary for Thompson’s widow, Namora, to endure the pain and stress of repeated court appearances.

“My response to Joe Ingber is that defendants who settle cases by pleading are rewarded,” Arnold said. “Lavera went to trial. He was penalized, and every minute he was sentenced to is deserved.”

Arnold added that Lavera turned down an offer to plead guilty in exchange for a 25-year-to-life term.

Thompson was killed in a telephone booth at Slauson Avenue and Broadway. Police said he had gone for help after a bus from his church broke down during an outing. As his wife waited in their car, three men accosted her, took $10 from her purse and then shot Thompson once in the head while he prayed.

Police said the men took Thompson’s 1986 Hyundai and drove to a liquor store where they bought beer and cigarettes. Arnold alleged that they returned to the store later and shot Salgado to death when he and his friend refused to give them money.

Still awaiting trial on robbery and two first-degree murder charges is Tracy Lavell Carter, 21, of Los Angeles.