WEST COVINA : Man Gets Death Sentence for Murder Outside Hotel
A Riverside County man was sentenced Monday to die in the gas chamber at San Quentin prison for the murder of a well-known West Covina community activist.
“I hope your remorse is genuine. I hope you find peace in your life. And I hope you find peace when you meet your maker,” Pomona Superior Court Judge Robert Martinez said in sentencing Paul Watkins, 23, of Moreno Valley.
Watkins shot Raymond Garrett Shield on July 17, 1990, in front of the victim’s wife, daughter and two 8-year-old grandchildren outside a West Covina hotel. Shield, 61, had taken his family to the Holiday Inn to catch a shuttle bus to Los Angeles International Airport for a vacation in Hawaii.
Authorities said Shield was the victim of an armed-robbery spree by Watkins and accomplice Lucien Martin, 20, of Gardena, who was convicted and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
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