Killer Gets Life Without Parole

A Lennox gang member was sentenced last week to three life terms in state prison for murdering a 15-year-old witness to an earlier killing by a fellow gang member.

Bennie (Ben Dog) Bellfield, 24, was convicted in April of the first-degree murder of Renee Johnson. The teen-ager was shot at point-blank range in her home on Sept. 16, 1989, after Pedro (Wacc) Diego, 25, convinced Bellfield that the girl had revealed details of a July, 1989, murder to police.

Torrance Superior Court Judge Jean E. Matusinka sentenced Bellfield to life in prison without possibility of parole for killing Johnson and two additional life terms for the attempted murder of Johnson’s mother and another relative. Ann Johnson has recovered from her bullet wounds; the relative was not injured.