L.A. Sergeant Testifies in Undercover Officer’s Death

A Los Angeles police sergeant testified Thursday that he saw the man accused of shooting to death a fellow undercover officer in Sylmar four years ago approach the officer with a gun.

Sgt. Randy Garcia’s testimony came on the second day of the murder trial of Louis Belvin Jr., 22, in San Fernando Superior Court. Belvin of Los Angeles is accused of killing Officer James H. Pagliotti, 28, on June 22, 1987, when Pagliotti tried to arrest Belvin for carrying a weapon on the street.

Garcia said he and Pagliotti were among several undercover officers who were watching a burglary suspect in the area when Garcia saw Belvin and a friend, Thomas Lee Mixon, 23, standing at Astoria Street and Bromont Avenue.

Belvin was holding a gun, Garcia said. After a few minutes, the two men started walking toward Garcia, who was sitting in his unmarked parked car. Garcia said he noticed that Mixon was also carrying a gun, and then radioed for backup assistance because he believed the two men were going to try to rob him.

Garcia said the two men stopped and began walking toward Pagliotti’s car as it approached. Shots rang out and Garcia said he approached the intersection, where he confronted Mixon. He said he fired two shots at Mixon before arresting him.

When he reached Pagliotti’s car, he found the officer lying on the street with a bullet wound in his chest.

On Monday, Kevin Murphy, a former Los Angeles police officer, testified that he was driving up to the intersection shortly before the shooting occurred. Murphy said he saw Belvin, who was 17 at the time, crouch, aim and fire four shots at Pagliotti after Pagliotti got out of his car and identified himself as a police officer.

Asked by Deputy Dist. Atty. Susan Speer if Belvin was the man he saw shoot Pagliotti, Murphy answered: “His hair’s a little shorter now, but that’s the fellow.”

Belvin’s attorney, Marvin L. Part, did not make an opening statement. Outside the courtroom, however, he said his client admits shooting the officer, but claims it was in self-defense.

Belvin and Mixon had been selling small quantities of rock cocaine that night, Part said. The attorney said Belvin thought Pagliotti, who was dressed in shorts and a print shirt, was a disgruntled customer the two men had beaten up earlier that evening over a drug deal, and that Pagliotti was the man returning for revenge.

In a plea agreement in May, 1990, Mixon, also of Los Angeles, pleaded guilty to cocaine-selling and assault charges in exchange for prosecutors dropping a murder charge against him. Mixon faces a maximum of eight years and four months in prison. He will not be sentenced until after the completion of Belvin’s trial, which is expected to last three weeks.