Conviction of Ex-Officer in Contract Slaying Vacated

In a ruling that brought a sharp protest from a dissenting judge, a state appeals court panel has vacated the first-degree murder conviction of a former Los Angeles police officer in the contract slaying of a Northridge businessman whose wife wanted him dead.

A three-member panel of the state Court of Appeal found that at least two jurors in the trial of former LAPD officer Robert Anthony Von Villas may have engaged in misconduct, but that there was not enough evidence to merit an immediate reversal of Von Villas’ conviction.

Instead, the judges voted 2-1 to order the trial judge in the original case to hold a hearing on the misconduct issue and put jurors under oath to determine if a retrial is necessary.

Attorneys for Von Villas argued that jurors had heard information they were not supposed to hear, and that the former detective had been convicted unfairly.

One of the judges agreed, charging in a dissenting opinion that the failure of the other two judges to grant Von Villas an outright reversal of his conviction failed to meet the standards of justice.

Von Villas, of Simi Valley, and a fellow Devonshire Division officer, Richard Herman Ford of Northridge, were convicted in 1989 of first-degree murder and conspiracy in the case of Thomas Weed, a small-business owner who disappeared in February, 1983, and whose body has never been found.

Prosecutors said the two officers murdered Weed, 52, and buried his body in the desert in exchange for $20,000 from Weed’s ex-wife, Janie E. Ogilvie. The men were tried separately, and both were sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole.

Ogilvie was allowed to plead guilty to a second-degree murder charge in exchange for her testimony that she paid Von Villas and Ford to kill her husband. She was sentenced to 15 years to life in prison.

Von Villas is in Folsom state prison, serving sentences for several crimes.

In a 147-page ruling made public Tuesday, the justices voted unanimously to uphold the conviction of Ford.

Attorney Mark D. Greenberg said he will appeal Ford’s conviction to the state Supreme Court.