Death Penalty to Be Sought for 2 in Killing of Murder Witness

A prosecutor this week will seek the death penalty for two Lennox gang members convicted of shooting a 15-year-old girl to death to eliminate her as a witness to another murder.

On Tuesday, a Torrance Superior Court jury will begin hearing arguments about whether Pedro (Wacc) Diego and Bennie (Ben Dog) Bellfield--whom jurors last week convicted of murder--should be executed or sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for killing Renee Johnson.

Jurors also convicted Diego, 24, of second-degree murder for shooting 40-year-old Charles Long to death in front of several witnesses on a Lennox street corner on July 12, 1989. Jurors concluded that Diego, who had been jailed on suspicion of Long’s murder, conspired with Bellfield, 24, to murder Johnson after Diego heard that she had revealed details of the Long shooting to police.

The penalty phase follows a five-week trial in which witnesses testified that Bellfield forced his way into Johnson’s Osage Avenue apartment at 3 a.m. on Sept. 16, 1989, and opened fire with a shotgun, Deputy Dist. Atty. Janet Moore said.

Johnson was struck at point-blank range at least twice, once in the head and once in the neck, Moore said.

Her mother, 46-year-old Ann Johnson, who had been sleeping on a nearby couch, was shot in the stomach and thigh. Although seriously injured, she survived the attack.

Bellfield also fired at one of Johnson’s relatives, Tony Patton, who escaped injury when he rolled from his bed and tried to hide in a pile of clothes, Patton testified. Moore said Bellfield apparently ran out of shotgun shells after that last shot and fled the scene. Shotgun pellet holes were found three inches above where Patton’s head had been.

Defense attorneys for Diego and Bellfield could not be reached for comment. During the trial, defense attorneys argued that witnesses to the Long and Johnson shootings gaveinconsistent testimony about what happened and may not have clearly seen the assailants.

A few days before Diego was arrested for the Long shooting, witnesses said he went to the Johnson apartment and waved a gun at several family members, threatening to kill anyone who talked to police.

Moore said the Johnson family members were initially uncooperative witnesses to the Long shooting, at first denying that they had seen anything and later slowly revealing details of the killing.

Although Renee Johnson, who knew Bellfield and Diego, had told police that she did not see the actual shooting, she did say that she heard Diego asking for a gun and just secondslater heard shots being fired.

Moore said she is seeking the death penalty because Bellfield and Diego killed the girl to eliminate a witness.

“You ask witnesses to come into court and lay their lives on the line, and if you allow something like this to happen and you don’t try for the maximum penalty, I don’t see how many witnesses could continue to put faith in the system,” she said.