Man Receives Maximum 27 Years in Slaying

A Sun Valley man was sentenced to 27 years to life in state prison Wednesday for the murder of a gas station owner during a dispute over the victim’s daughter.

Curtis Ray Morgan, 36, convicted last month of first-degree murder and burglary in the killing of Raymond Dilger, 43, was given the maximum sentence in San Fernando Superior Court by Judge Meredith C. Taylor.

In a courtroom filled with family and friends of Dilger, Taylor cited the grief of those who knew the former stock car racer and owner of Ray’s Chevron in Sun Valley.

“I hope that you have heard it and that it . . . makes a difference in your life,” she told Morgan after handing down the sentence.

Dilger was shot twice in the head as he lay in bed in his Lake View Terrace home Aug. 20, 1987.

Morgan, a former boyfriend of Dilger’s daughter and the father of her son, beat the woman and terrorized the family, Deputy Dist. Atty. Sidney Trapp Jr. said. Morgan shot the man “to show off his machismo” because Dilger had attempted to protect the woman and the child, Trapp said.

After the slaying, Morgan fled and was arrested several months later in Florida after the television program “America’s Most Wanted” aired a segment about the case.

During the trial, Morgan testified that he did not remember shooting Dilger. Defense attorney Kenneth Lezin argued that Morgan had suffered brain damage from being “strung out on drugs and alcohol” and that the slaying was not premediated.

In arguing for the maximum sentence, Trapp described Morgan as “cold-blooded and cruel. He destroyed one man’s life and damaged hundreds of others” in the community.

Trapp said that Dilger had attempted to help Morgan many times and had allowed him to live in his home when he was a teen-ager.

Several family members and friends expressed fear that Morgan would seek revenge on those who testified against him and asked the judge to impose the maximum penalty.

The victim’s daughter, Cheryl Dilger-Parks, said she feared that Morgan would harm their 4-year-old son.

“I just want to know that he’s put away and can’t come get him,” she said through tears. “This little boy is all I have. This is what my dad died for.”

Authorities said it would be at least 17 or 18 years before Morgan could be paroled.