Man Gets Up to 75 Years in Shooting of Officers
A Gardena man was sentenced Monday to 37 1/2 to 75 years in prison for aggravated assault and other charges stemming from the 1988 shooting of two New York police officers after the robbery of a cabbie.
Leighton Seow, 23, was found guilty by a state Supreme Court jury in New York following a three-week trial.
Seow, who has two 1987 convictions on felony drug charges in California, was charged with robbing cabdriver Renold Pierre in Brooklyn on Sept. 25, 1988, and wounding two police officers who responded to Pierre’s pleas for help.
Sgt. Thomas Dewitt was wounded in the abdomen and Officer Charles Guarneri was shot in the hip and leg. They both recovered but never resumed active police duty.
Seow testified that he had fired in self-defense when the cabdriver fired a shot and police fired into the cab in response. Pierre testified that he had been robbed by Seow and did not have a weapon.
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