Man Admits Slaying During Drug Deal

A 28-year-old Sylmar man pleaded guilty Thursday to a murder that originally was blamed on a house painter who said he was a good Samaritan driving the victim to a hospital.

Eric Cunningham pleaded guilty to one count of first-degree murder for killing Walter Bickly Hackman, 23, of Palm Desert during a drug deal gone sour on April 21, 1989.

According to Deputy Dist. Atty. Craig R. Richman, Cunningham sold cocaine in Pacoima and fatally shot Hackman after Hackman decided to buy drugs from another dealer. Hackman drove his van several hundred yards from the shooting and collapsed.

Vaughn Grant, a 39-year-old house painter from San Fernando, was arrested on suspicion of murder after being pulled over while driving Hackman’s van, which carrying the dying victim. Police had stopped the car because it matched a description given by a witness.

When he was arrested, Grant told authorities that, while he was walking home, he happened to see the van with Hackman slumped over in the driver’s seat. Realizing that Hackman needed emergency medical treatment, he got in the van and began driving Hackman to a hospital, he said.

Authorities found no evidence to tie Grant to the murder, and did not charge him with it, but said they believed he was trying to steal the van and the victim’s money.

Charged with grand theft, Grant pleaded no contest a month later. He said in a subsequent interview that he entered the plea because authorities told him they would release him from jail if he did. He was given a six-month suspended sentence.

By the time Grant was sentenced on June 1, detectives conducting further investigation said they had found evidence that Cunningham was the killer.

Richman said Thursday that the district attorney’s office has no plans to reopen Grant’s case because prosecutors still believe that even though he was not involved in the shooting, he was attempting to steal the dying man’s truck and money.

Officers who halted the van and ordered Grant out said that he dropped a bloody $50 bill, which they said he had taken from Hackman.

Grant denied that he meant to steal anything. He never had any bloody money, he said.

Cunningham was arrested the day after Grant was sentenced. He originally was charged with first-degree murder with the special circumstance that the killing occurred during a robbery, which carries a maximum sentence of life in prison without possibility of parole.

Prosecutors said they offered Cunningham a plea agreement--under which he will be sentenced to 25 years to life in prison--because it would be too difficult to prove special circumstances.