Van Nuys Man Given Life Term in North Hills Killings

A Van Nuys man was sentenced Friday to life in prison without the possibility of parole for his part in the killing of two bystanders and the wounding of a third after an apparent drug dispute in North Hills.

Edward Furnace, 26, was convicted in February in San Fernando Superior Court on 10 counts of the indictment against him, including first- and second-degree murder and assault with a firearm against a police officer.

Furnace’s accomplice, Kenneth Ford Fuqua, 30, of Pacoima, was convicted of similar charges. He will be sentenced April 23, after a probation report is completed, according to Deputy Dist. Atty. Sid Trapp.

According to court records, Furnace and Fuqua went to an apartment complex in the 8800 block of Langdon Avenue in January, 1989, to find a man who had been involved in a drug deal that went sour.

Once at the complex, they kidnaped a man and a woman they did not know at gunpoint and forced them to accompany them to an apartment, where they believed the man they were looking for lived.

They kicked the door open, but the apartment was empty. As they left the complex, they fired at five men, whom they didn’t know, standing in a back alley, hitting three of them.

Willie Johnson, 21, of Panorama City, and Brett Boswell, 28, of Saugus, were killed in the shooting. The third man, Timothy Brown, 24 at the time, of Van Nuys, was shot in the back but recovered.

The kidnaped couple escaped when the shooting started.

Furnace was shot in the leg by a police officer.