Woman Who Lured 2 Girls for Killer Is Found Guilty : Courts: Marcia Lynn Ramos is convicted of second-degree murder. Jurors reject defense claims that she was as much a victim of Roland Norman Comtois as were the two Chatsworth teen-agers.

Jurors on Wednesday convicted a woman of second-degree murder for her part in helping a drifter kill a Chatsworth girl and shoot and sexually assault her companion.

But the jury spared Marcia Lynn Ramos, 36, from the possibility of death in the gas chamber by acquitting her of first-degree murder.

Ramos sat expressionless as the clerk read the eight verdicts, reached after eight days of deliberations that followed a 3 1/2-week trial in San Fernando Superior Court. Members of the victims’ families later said they were satisfied with the verdicts, despite the conviction on the lesser murder charge.

“I’m glad she won’t be out for a long, long time,” said Lynne Masuhara, mother of the slain girl, 14-year-old Wendy Masuhara. “I didn’t expect her to get first-degree” murder.

Masuhara said she was not disappointed that Ramos will not face the death penalty. She said she was most concerned that Ramos not walk away from the trial a free person.

The mother of the surviving girl said outside the courtroom: “I am so pleased that it’s over with. I’m pleased about the verdict. They did find her guilty and she is going to pay for it.”

In addition to convicting Ramos of second-degree murder, the jury found her guilty of attempted second-degree murder, three sexual assault charges, two counts of kidnaping and a count of furnishing a minor with cocaine.

She could have faced the death penalty or life in prison without the possibility of parole if convicted of first-degree murder and three “special circumstances,” including the allegation that the murder occurred in the course of a kidnaping.

Jurors said after the verdict that they had difficulty believing the defense’s claim that Ramos was as much a victim of killer Roland Norman Comtois as were the two girls. But they also said they did not believe the prosecution’s position that Ramos intended to have the girls killed when she lured them into Comtois’ camper on a Chatsworth street late on Sept. 18, 1987.

Comtois, 61, was sentenced in July to die in the gas chamber for his part in the crime.

Several jurors said they thought that if Ramos were truly a victim, she would have tried to flee or yell for help when she exited the camper to lure the girls inside. Ramos, a convicted prostitute who said Comtois supplied her with cocaine while she lived with him in the camper for nearly two months, testified that Comtois pointed a gun at her and threatened to kill her if she did not comply with his wishes.

Though the verdict was not what either the prosecution or the defense had sought, both sides expressed satisfaction. While she was saved from the gas chamber, Ramos still faces 55 to 70 years in prison when she is sentenced Jan. 25, according to estimates by both sides.

“She isn’t going anywhere,” said Deputy Dist. Atty. Rosalie L. Morton, who substituted for trial prosecutor Harold S. Lynn at Wednesday’s verdict reading.

“It’s a victory to us that we saved her life and that she didn’t get convicted of first-degree murder,” said Alex R. Kessel, one of Ramos’ two court-appointed defense lawyers. “We put on all the evidence we could.”

The kidnaping took place as the girls were walking in their Chatsworth neighborhood to meet several friends at the corner of Devonshire Street and Lurline Avenue. Ramos emerged from the camper and asked them to help her start it. After they entered the vehicle, Comtois pointed a gun at them, tied them up and gagged them, the surviving victim, who was 13 at the time, testified.

After sexually assaulting the 13-year-old, he drove the girls to remote Woolsey Canyon Road west of Canoga Park, placed them in an abandoned station wagon and shot both in the head. Masuhara died instantly, but the other girl survived because her upraised hand deflected the bullet.