Boy Pleads Guilty to Manslaughter in Moorpark Slaying

A Moorpark youth, whose hometown rallied to his defense when he was charged with murdering a local eccentric, has pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of voluntary manslaughter under an agreement that will allow him to avoid an adult prison, his attorney said Friday.

William (Billy) Cardiel, 17, entered the plea in Ventura Municipal Court on Thursday for the July 13 death of Chester Lawson, a part-time groundskeeper characterized by townspeople as “the Moorpark bum.” Cardiel, who was originally charged with murder in Juvenile Court, contended that he acted in defense of a friend when he struck the 59-year-old Lawson with an 8-foot-long wooden pole.

Cardiel could still be sentenced to a term in the California Youth Authority, but his attorney, Charles R. English of Santa Monica, said he would seek probation for the youth. “He wants to get out of jail, and then he needs to go back and get his high school degree. That’s his first step,” English said.

Lawson’s death and the subsequent arrest of Cardiel and his friend Andy Amavisca stunned Moorpark, a rapidly growing former farming community of about 25,000 residents. Neighbors established a legal defense fund on Cardiel’s behalf, and a faithful corps of about 30 friends and relatives often missed school and work to attend court hearings and lend emotional support to his parents.

The fund’s organizers said Friday that $4,700 had been raised so far and that donations are still coming in. English declined to disclose the legal fees accrued by Cardiel, whose father works in construction and mother is employed by the Moorpark Unified School District.

The guilty plea was entered after the prosecution agreed not to seek a state prison term, said English and Ventura County Deputy Dist. Atty. James D. Ellison.

Ellison said he has not decided what kind of sentence to recommend, but confinement to a California Youth Authority facility is still possible. Voluntary manslaughter carries a maximum term of 11 years. But under state law, Cardiel would have to be released from a youth correctional facility when he reaches 25, Ellison and English said.

English also acknowledged Friday that unresolved questions over the number of blows Cardiel struck--at least six--played a role in the decision to plead guilty rather than go to trial.

“There was a substantial risk” that a jury might find that Cardiel was guilty of murder on the grounds that he used more force than needed to protect his friend, continuing to strike after Lawson had been beaten defenseless, English said.

“If death occurred from the first blow, the one necessary to protect Billy, then I’d think it would be a not-guilty” verdict, he said. “But if it was the fifth blow that killed him, then it could’ve been a whole different story.”

Cardiel, who is being held in the county’s juvenile detention facility in Ventura, is scheduled to be sentenced Feb. 28 by Superior Court Judge Lawrence Storch. His case was transferred out of Juvenile Court last month after Judge Barbara A. Lane found his actions heinous enough to warrant prosecution as an adult.

English said Cardiel deserved to be placed on probation because he had no criminal record or history of violence, and because “this death was a situational kind of thing that has no likelihood of repeating.”

Lawson did odd jobs for Moorpark shopkeepers, who said he was prone to drunken, obscene and sometimes violent outbursts. He was killed during a confrontation with Cardiel and Amavisca near the small trailer where he lived. Amavisca was never charged in the death.

The two teen-agers had been drinking beer and talking in Amavisca’s truck, which was parked in a vacant lot Lawson was paid $40 a week to keep free of litter and intruders.

During a hearing to determine whether he should be tried as an adult instead of a juvenile, Cardiel testified that Lawson came at Amavisca with a pitchfork and that he feared for his best friend’s life. Lawson was drunk, Cardiel recalled during emotional testimony, and called the youths obscene names and racial epithets.

Cardiel said he grabbed a nearby wooden pole and sneaked up on Lawson from behind before striking him on the head at least three times. A coroner later testified that Lawson received at least six blows, maybe more, the majority delivered after he was lying on the ground, and that he suffered broken ribs.

One of Lawson’s few friends in Moorpark, a manager for the company whose property Lawson helped guard, said Friday that Cardiel deserved “a little hard time.”

“I’m not a vindictive person,” said Ken Purdy, a manager for the Air Dry Corp. “But I feel our youths today just are not responsible for their actions, and I think this is a case where this young gentleman has to be made aware of what he’s done.”