2 Guards Found Guilty in Murder of Club’s Patron

Two security guards from an Inglewood nightclub for teen-agers were convicted Monday of second-degree murder for gunning down a patron who criticized the girls inside the club.

Abdul Malik Muhammad, 39, and Shaka Muhammad, 24, stood silently with their hands clasped in front of them as a Torrance Superior Court clerk read the verdict of the third jury to hear the case.

Shaka Muhammad faces up to 20 years to life in state prison when the pair is sentenced Nov. 18. Abdul Muhammad faces five years more--up to 25 years to life--because he was convicted of felony robbery in 1974.

Two earlier trials in the case ended with juries deadlocked in favor of guilt. The third jury reached a verdict after two days of deliberation.

According to testimony during the trial, the Muhammads--who are not related--shot 19-year-old Kevin Davis outside RBD-Joshua’s, a Manchester Boulevard nightclub, on March 31, 1990.

Witnesses testified that the Muhammads became enraged when Davis made an insulting comment about the girls inside the club.

After several minutes of arguing, Davis called one of the Muhammads “gay” and then turned to step inside a car with a friend.

As he sat in the car’s passenger seat, Abdul Muhammad fired three shots at him through the side window, fatally wounding him. Shaka Muhammad stood in front of the car and fired a bullet through the windshield, missing Davis.

Defense attorneys for the Muhammads, who argued their clients were victims of mistaken identifications by witnesses, said they will appeal the verdict.

“It is very difficult for a jury to see a dead person there and not find somebody responsible,” said Deputy Public Defender James Cooper, who represented Shaka Muhammad. “They figure if this guy was the one who got arrested, he must be guilty. They’re wrong. He’s not.”

Deputy Dist. Atty. Mary Hanlon expressed relief at the jury’s verdict.

“They shot somebody in cold blood and if they walk, they’ll do it again,” Hanlon said. “I had no doubt that these guys did it.”