Jury Votes Death for Killer of 2 Students

Death in the gas chamber was recommended Thursday for a 27-year-old South-Central Los Angeles man convicted of the brutal murders of two college sweethearts abducted near the UCLA campus and shot to death four years ago.

Santa Monica Superior Court jurors returned with death verdicts in the third day of the penalty phase of the trial of Stanley Bernard Davis in the slayings of UCLA freshman Michelle Anne Boyd, 19, and Cal State Northridge sophomore Brian Edward Harris, 20.

The jury had earlier convicted Davis, a one-time gang member, of first-degree murder with special circumstances--kidnaping, robbery, arson and grand theft auto--in the death of the two students.

Davis remained impassive when the two verdicts were announced.

His lawyers, Seymour Applebaum and Louis Bernstein, had urged jurors to grant their client mercy with a recommendation of life in prison, citing Davis’ low intelligence and his purported history as a battered child.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Harvey Giss challenged the battered-child defense with testimony that witnesses for Davis had not seen him for 10 or 15 years. The prosecutor asked jurors to grant Davis the same mercy he had given his victims.

According to trial testimony, Davis and three other South-Central Los Angeles men took over Harris’ Honda car near Boyd’s apartment in Westwood on Sept. 30, 1985, forced the young man into the trunk and drove the couple to a secluded field off Mulholland Drive in the Santa Monica Mountains, where Davis shot each of them in the head at close range.

The prosecution’s chief witness--25-year-old DeAndre Brown, who went along that night--testified that the four wanted the car so they could drive to Barstow to commit a robbery.

Brown quoted Davis as saying that he shot the frightened students to eliminate witnesses. Brown was granted immunity for testifying for the prosecution.

Two others along that night, Damon L. Redmond, 24, was convicted and sentenced earlier this year to 53 years to life in prison. Donald Bennett, 24, who pleaded guilty last year to second-degree murder, was sentenced to 18 years in prison.

Davis is scheduled to return to court on Nov. 14 for formal sentencing by Judge Leslie Light.