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Gang Leader Sentenced to 31 Years in Fatal Shooting

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TIMES STAFF WRITER

A leader of a Pacoima street gang was sentenced to 31 years and four months in prison Thursday for his part in an unprovoked shooting in Arleta that left one man dead and another injured.

In giving 21-year-old Ernest Townsend maximum sentences for one count of second-degree murder and two counts of attempted murder, Van Nuys Superior Court Judge Stephen D. Petersen said Townsend had lived up to his gang nickname--”Evil.”

“Mr. Townsend acted evilly,” Petersen said. “The crime involved a high degree of viciousness.”

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According to evidence at Townsend’s trial in January, he was one of at least three men who opened fire on three unarmed Los Angeles men outside of Doohinkeys bar in the 8900 block of Woodman Avenue on July 13, 1990.

Jason Jefferson, 22, was fatally wounded while sitting in a pickup truck, and Derek Potter, 20, was shot in the hip. Anthony Murray, 26, was uninjured.

Los Angeles County Deputy Dist. Atty. Shellie Samuels said the motive for the shooting was not known but there had been no prior altercation or dispute with the victims.

A second alleged gunman is awaiting trial. The third shooter has not been identified.

Defense attorney Bruce Hill asked Petersen for a 20-year sentence because evidence indicated that one of the other gunmen fired the shot that killed Jefferson. But the judge rejected the plea for a lesser term, agreeing with Samuels’ contention that the crime deserved the maximum punishment.

The judge said “this type of gunplay, which is all too prevalent, is the most vicious and callous type of violence. This type of violence must be stopped, and this sentence will stop Mr. Townsend.”

Townsend, whom Samuels described as a leader of a Pacoima gang, showed no reaction to the sentence.

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Nearly two years before the Jefferson slaying, Townsend was the intended victim in an unrelated shooting in which a 16-year-old bystander was killed. In that case, rival gang members opened fire inside a crowded Panorama City mall on Dec. 16, 1988. Townsend escaped unharmed, but a boy who was Christmas shopping was killed by mistake.

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