Man Pleads Guilty to Lesser Charges in Officer’s Slaying

One of two defendants in the 1987 fatal shooting of a Los Angeles police officer in Sylmar pleaded guilty to cocaine-selling and assault charges Monday, but prosecutors decided to drop the murder charge, saying the case against him was shaky.

Thomas Lee Mixon, 21, was being prosecuted for the June, 22, 1987, shooting death of Officer James H. Pagliotti on the theory that he and the other defendant took part in a drug-selling conspiracy that led to the officer’s death.

But Deputy Dist. Atty. Susan M. Speer said Monday that evidence in the case did not demonstrate that Mixon and co-defendant Louis Belvin Jr., 20, were engaged in such a conspiracy at the time of the shooting.

Mixon had admitted to investigators that he and Belvin--who authorities said were both South-Central Los Angeles gang members--had come to Sylmar that day to sell drugs, but no drugs were recovered from them after the shooting, Speer said. Mixon also did not fire the fatal shots and was standing a half block away from where the shooting took place in the Sylmar Square area, she said.

“We’re going to concentrate our efforts on the shooter,” Speer said, referring to Belvin, who she said was “the guy who was really responsible.”

Pagliotti was killed in a gun battle after confronting Mixon and Belvin in the belief they were dealing drugs, authorities said. Prosecutors said it was Belvin who opened fire on the plainclothes officer, who returned fire and took cover behind his car. The car rolled forward, however, exposing Pagliotti, who was then shot in the chest.

Pagliotti, 28, had been a police officer 5 years.

Belvin is awaiting trial on a murder charge. He was 17 years old at the time of the shooting but is being tried as an adult.

Mixon’s attorney, Robert D. Rentzer, said proving a murder based on a conspiracy would have been especially difficult because Mixon and Belvin did not know each other particularly well.

“Logically, it’s really reaching,” Rentzer said.

Prosecutors also were reluctant to spend the time and effort that would have been required to bring Mixon to trial on a charge they believed tenuous, Speer said. Mixon and Belvin would have had to be tried separately, she said.

After pleading guilty to the lesser charges on Monday, Mixon faces a maximum sentence of eight years and four months in prison when he is sentenced June 8 in San Fernando Superior Court.

Speer said she will seek the maximum sentence.

In addition to the charge of selling cocaine, Mixon admitted Monday to an assault that was not related to the shooting of the police officer. Shortly before the shooting, Mixon beat up a man who had come to the area to buy drugs, Speer said.