Retrial of Gang Members in Slaying Begins

A second trial for two South-Central Los Angeles gang members accused of killing a 67-year-old man in his Woodland Hills residence began Wednesday with the prosecutor describing the robbery that led to the slaying.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Antoinette Decker said Devin M. Feagin fatally shot Howard David King in his bedroom on April 29, 1988, while Terrill Ross held the victim’s 68-year-old wife, Faye, at gunpoint on the kitchen floor.

“While she was lying on the floor and he was pointing a gun at her, she heard shooting from the back of the house,” Decker told the jury. “After they left, she went to the bedroom and found her husband on the floor, shot in the chest.”

Decker’s remarks came during opening statements in the case, which is being retried before Van Nuys Superior Court Judge Kathryne Ann Stoltz.

Feagin, 21, and Ross, 19, both believed by police to be gang members, are charged with murder, robbery and residential burglary. Their first murder trial ended after four months with a mistrial in March when the jury trying the two men deadlocked after five weeks of deliberations.

Decker said Feagin and Ross were linked to the killing by neighbors of the Kings who saw a metallic gold Cadillac drive slowly up and down Darien Street, a cul-de-sac, two times the day before the killing.

Decker said on the following night, Faye King was making tea in the kitchen while her husband slept when the two intruders crashed through a door. They took cash, a watch and a gun from the residence.

Decker said the Cadillac seen the day before was traced to Feagin and Ross and fingerprints from both men were later found in the house, Feagin’s on a door and Ross’ on a newspaper.

Attorneys for the defendants told the jury that Faye King’s identification of the defendants was faulty and said that although the Cadillac linked to the defendants was seen in the neighborhood the day before the slaying, there were no witnesses who saw it there the night Howard King was shot.

Ross’ attorney, alternate defense counsel Patrick Atkinson, said the widow could not identify Ross during a police lineup two months after the killing. He also disputed the allegation that Ross’ fingerprint was found inside the King residence on a newspaper.

Jack Stone, who represents Feagin, said several witnesses will testify that Feagin was with them on the night of the slaying. He also attacked the identification of the two defendants. Stone said an expert on cross-racial identification will testify during the trial about the difficulty people of one race have in describing members of another race.

Testimony in the trial began with two of King’s neighbors describing how they saw the Cadillac driving slowly on Darien Street the night before the slaying. One neighbor, Skip Northcross, said he and his wife took down the car’s license plate number and gave it to police the next night when they learned of the killing. Another neighbor, Alex Marlowe, testified that he identified Feagin as one of the men in the car.

Because the killing occurred during the commission of another crime, Feagin faces the death penalty if convicted. Because Ross was a juvenile at the time, the law precludes him from being put to death. The two are being held without bail in County Jail.