Man Faces Death Penalty in 2 Murder Convictions
A 21-year-old Los Angeles man was convicted Wednesday of two murders committed in 1987, including the slaying of a Tustin church elder who was shot as he prayed for his safety in a South Los Angeles telephone booth.
The defendant, Tracy Lavell Carter, removed his glasses and listened intently to a Los Angeles Superior Court clerk as she read a jury’s guilty verdicts on the two murder charges and five other counts, including attempted murder, armed robbery and attempted robbery.
“The prosecution will be pursuing the death penalty,” Deputy Dist. Atty. Anne Ingalls said outside the courtroom after the verdicts were read. “And the defense attorneys will be attempting to persuade the jury to vote for life without the possibility of parole. Those are the only two possibilities.”
The penalty phase of the trial is scheduled to begin Tuesday.
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