Man Gets Life in Prison for Slaying Disc Jockey

A 22-year-old Compton man was sentenced Monday to life in prison without parole for fatally shooting a self-employed disc jockey to steal a van filled with expensive stereo equipment.

Van Nuys Superior Court Judge Judith Meisels Ashmann sentenced Roger Moore Jr. to the maximum sentence sought by prosecutors for the Oct. 15, 1988, killing of Joseph Brosta, 41, of Reseda.

Moore was found guilty of first-degree murder by a Van Nuys Superior Court jury on Feb. 26. The jury also convicted him of the special-circumstance allegation of committing a murder during a robbery, which allowed prosecutors to seek the death penalty or life in prison without parole. They sought the latter.

An accomplice of Moore’s, Frederick Kelly, 22, also of Compton, pleaded guilty to being an accessory to the murder and testified against Moore. Moore confessed to police that he shot Brosta.

A third man, Erin Blunt, 23, of Carson, also faces murder charges in Brosta’s death. Blunt’s preliminary hearing is scheduled for April.

Brosta’s body was found in an alley behind his home in the 7900 block of White Oak Avenue about 2:30 a.m. He had been shot in the chest with a .12-gauge shotgun, police said.

At the time of his death, Brosta was returning from a job as disc jockey at a dance at St. Francis High School and Seminary in La Canada-Flintridge, Deputy Dist. Atty. Robert P. Imerman said.

While fleeing in Brosta’s van, the three men allegedly rammed a Los Angeles police car, which they mistakenly believed was chasing them, Imerman said. The car actually was answering an unrelated call. The men abandoned the vehicle and escaped on foot, but Moore’s fingerprints were found inside, Imerman said.