Carlsbad

A 20-year-old Fallbrook man who told a judge he preferred the death penalty to life in prison was sentenced Monday to a life term without the possibility of parole for killing an elderly man in a robbery.

Nick Holm, who is the second co-defendant to receive the same sentence for the Jan. 10 slaying of Swan Otto Bloomquist, 82, of Vista, was given the term by U. S. District Judge William Enright.

Holm pleaded guilty in June to first-degree murder. A co-defendant, Larry LaFleur, 23, of Oceanside Thursday received the same sentence, but he had been convicted at a trial.

Addressing the judge, Holm said: “I’d like to say that me and Larry LaFleur did intend to rob Mr. Bloomquist, steal his car, and we did discuss murder. I feel very disgusted with myself.”

He went on to say, “There’s nothing I can say or do except to say I’m sorry. I wish I could be put to death instead of being in prison for the rest of my life for taking another man’s life.”

The pair encountered Bloomquist in his car Jan. 10 in a Carlsbad shopping center parking lot, where he was waiting for his wife of 59 years, Nora Bloomquist, 84.

At gunpoint, Bloomquist was abducted in his own car and driven to a remote area of Camp Pendleton near Fallbrook, then shot five times. LaFleur told authorities that Bloomquist got on his knees and begged for his life before he was shot in the chest and head.