Court Upholds Life Sentences in Murder of Elderly Vista Man

First-degree murder on federal property carries a mandatory sentence of life without the possibility of parole, a federal appeals court ruled Monday in a San Diego County case.

In a 2-1 decision, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the life sentences of two men who abducted 82-year-old Otto Bloomquist of Vista from a Carlsbad shopping center in January, 1989, and shot him to death on a remote section of the Camp Pendleton Marine base.

The court said Bloomquist was waiting for his wife in his car at the shopping mall when Larry LaFleur and Nick Holm approached him with guns drawn and took over the car. They drove to the base, walked him down a deserted path and shot him in the back and head, the court said.

Each man claimed the other initiated the crime and forced him to shoot Bloomquist at gunpoint. They were charged in federal court because the killing took place on federal property.

Holm pleaded guilty to premeditated murder. LaFleur was convicted by a jury of premeditated murder, kidnaping and robbery.

Both men were sentenced to life in prison by U.S. District Judge William Enright in San Diego, who said he could not even consider arguments for a lesser sentence. The appeals court agreed and said neither man will ever be eligible for parole because law has eliminated parole for federal crimes committed after Nov. 1, 1987.

“Life in prison is the minimum sentence for the commission of first-degree murder” under federal jurisdiction, said the opinion by Judge Charles Wiggins, joined by Judge Arthur Alarcon.

On another issue, the court unanimously upheld Enright’s refusal to tell the jury that duress--the alleged threat by Holm--would justify a verdict of manslaughter rather than murder against LaFleur.