Facing Prison Term, a Bright but Troubled Youth Kills Himself

Joshua Tyler Reagan was a loner but a bright kid who liked to talk baseball and whose worst offense until this year seemed to be ditching classes from his high school in Palos Verdes.

Those who knew him say they were shocked to learn that he and a former classmate apparently had staged two “takeover” residential robberies, including one Jan. 9 in Palos Verdes Estates where the pair took $700,000 in Ming Dynasty artifacts after tying up a woman and putting her in a closet.

The prospect of serving time in prison for that robbery and a similar one in Las Vegas apparently overwhelmed the 17-year-old Reagan, who was found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in a Manhattan Beach house early Tuesday by Los Angeles County sheriff’s SWAT team officers.

“He had gotten in his mind that he was getting a significant jail sentence, and he was upset about that,” said Manhattan Beach Police Lt. Jack Zea.

Reagan, who had been tried as an adult, was scheduled to be sentenced Dec. 18 in the Las Vegas robbery, police said.

Reagan, who had been at the Manhattan Beach house visiting his mother for a week, apparently had been living in Mississippi for the past few months, authorities said. He was wanted by police after missing a court appearance in the Palos Verdes Estates case earlier this year.

His mother called police Monday night after the boy became agitated and pulled out a .38-caliber handgun, threatening her and the owner of the beachside house.

Manhattan Beach officers called county SWAT team members, who tried unsuccessfully to talk to Reagan. Shortly after 6 a.m. Tuesday, they stormed the house and found his body in a bathroom, authorities said.

“The police were calling him with a bullhorn and the telephone,” said Brendan Turrill, 16, who lives next door to Reagan’s mother. “We heard a gunshot at about 3 a.m. and the SWAT guys got us out of the house.”

Reagan’s troubles had been mostly minor until this year, said Bill Howard, principal of Rancho del Mar, the continuation high school in the Palos Verdes Unified School District where Reagan was a student until he dropped out last winter.

“He had attendance problems,” Howard said, and that prompted his transfer from Palos Verdes High School during the 1989-90 school year.

School authorities had hoped the less regimented schedule of the district’s continuation high school would help Reagan’s attendance. He and other students at Rancho del Mar are required to attend only half a day.

“He would come in the afternoon so he wouldn’t have to mix with the other kids,” Howard said. “Most everybody else would go to school in the morning.”

The one close friend he had was an older student, George Garcia, who became Reagan’s partner in the Palos Verdes Estates and Las Vegas robberies, authorities said.

In the Palos Verdes Estates case, Reagan posed as a flower deliveryman while Garcia, who wore a ski mask, waited until the woman who lived at the home opened the door. Garcia, who is in prison, knew about the valuables because he had lived with the family while in high school, Palos Verdes Estates Police Lt. Ed Jaakola said.

The pair reversed their roles in the Las Vegas case, with Garcia posing as the deliveryman, said Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Detective Larry Rose.

The two were arrested Feb. 23 after police raided a hotel room in El Segundo on an anonymous tip and found some of the missing Chinese artifacts. The two were quickly connected to the Las Vegas robbery because the methods were identical, Rose said.

After the arrests, police were able to recover all but $30,000 of the items taken in the Palos Verdes Estates robbery, Jaakola said. After Reagan missed a court appearance, a warrant for his arrest was issued and authorities lost track of him.

Howard said he received a telephone call from Reagan’s father in August, asking for a letter that would help the boy to enroll in a Mississippi junior college. By then, Reagan had earned his California high school equivalency certificate, Howard said.

“He could have gone on to a four-year college and graduated easily if he had some kind of direction,” Howard said.