Gang Member Convicted of Murdering 2 in 1982

A gang member charged with killing a rival and a 17-year-old girl in two 1982 drive-by shootings was convicted Monday in the culmination of one of the oldest criminal trials in Los Angeles County.

Virgil Byers, 28, of Los Angeles, was found guilty of two counts of second-degree murder and three counts of assault with a deadly weapon by a Superior Court jury of six men and six women.

However, Byers was acquitted of first-degree murder and attempted murder charges stemming from the same shootings.

Jurors also acquitted Byers of special circumstance allegations that would have made him eligible for a death sentence if he had been convicted of first-degree murder.

Byers, scheduled to be sentenced May 29, faces a maximum prison term of 30 years to life for the murders and an additional 20 years for the assault charges.

Byers’ case became one of the oldest criminal trials to wend its way through the courts in Los Angeles County largely because he succeeded in delaying his trial over the years by switching lawyers.

“It’s about time,” Deputy Dist. Atty. Loren Naiman said of the guilty verdicts. “The victims died eight years ago. Their families sit in utter amazement that the system could drag on this long.”

Byers was convicted of the murder of a rival gang member, Cornelius Harris, who was killed by shots fired from a passing car while a passenger in another vehicle on May 3, 1982. The slaying occurred in Southwest Los Angeles.

Another rival gang member was wounded in the attack. Naiman said Byers was either the gunman or the driver of the car in the assault.

Minutes later, Byers fired into a second car, killing a 17-year-old girl, Jody Hayes, and wounding two other rival gang members, prosecutors said.

Defense attorney Joel Isaacson argued at the trial that Byers was under the influence of PCP when he telephoned police three months after the shootings and confessed.

Isaacson is the sixth attorney to represent Byers since his arrest in August, 1982.

He was appointed to represent Byers in March, 1988, over the objections of Naiman, who argued that Byers kept changing defense attorneys as a trial-delaying tactic.

“This is a case where the defendant controls the system, not where the system controls the defendant,” Naiman said at the time.

Naiman said all of Byers’ previous attorneys were relieved of the case because of conflicts Byers claimed he had with them.

Byers’ fifth attorney, Lee Brewster, was taken off the case on grounds that he could not adequately defend Byers because of threats he had received. Brewster did not say who made the threats.

Byers finally went on trial in late 1987, but a mistrial was declared in January, 1988, when jurors deadlocked 11-1 in favor of conviction. He was then retried.

“Mr. Byers wanted to test the system,” Naiman said. “He always wanted to test the system. And now he has his result.”

Byers was manacled during the trial because of his propensity for violence, Naiman said. While in custody in County Jail, he was convicted of the attempted murder of another inmate and was sentenced to 12 years in state prison.