4 Convicted in Series of ‘Mall Murders’

Murder convictions were returned Friday against two women and two men accused of a string of brutal kidnapings, robberies and killings--dubbed “the mall murders”--in the San Gabriel Valley last year.

A Pomona Superior Court jury will reassemble Jan. 4 to decide whether to recommend the death penalty for John Lewis, 22; his girlfriend, Eileen Huber, 21; Lewis’ sister, Robbin Machuca, 27; and her former boyfriend, Vincent Hubbard, 27.

The four were convicted on a total of 78 felony counts for crimes committed from July 5 to Aug. 27, 1991.

Five people were slain, including two women kidnaped in broad daylight from the Puente Hills Mall in the City of Industry, the killings that gave the case its name.

The crimes were considered so coldblooded and brutal that “special circumstances” allegations were added, making the four subject to the death penalty.

The verdicts came in the jury’s fourth day of deliberation.

Deputy Dist. Atty. John Urgo, who said the case was “a nightmare” to prosecute, called more than 100 witnesses and introduced more than 260 pieces of evidence during the 1 1/2-month trial. Among the evidence were confessions from Lewis, Huber and Machuca.

None of the four defendants took the stand.

On Friday, 10 armed bailiffs from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department ringed the defendants, who were kept handcuffed, with their arms behind them, while the lengthy verdicts were read.

Lewis, a small, fine-featured man who allegedly masterminded the crimes, was convicted of all five murders and all other criminal charges against him. He showed little reaction, except to call out sarcastically, “All in a day’s work!” after the jurors were polled on their verdicts.

Hubbard--burly, talkative and aggressive, who last year stuck out his tongue at news cameras in the courtroom--was charged with four murders and convicted of two.

While the verdicts were read, he talked and joked openly with Machuca, disrupting court proceedings twice. When his attorney tried to quiet him, Hubbard replied, “It doesn’t matter. I don’t give a (expletive).”

Machuca, fashionably groomed as she had been throughout the trial, was convicted on all three murder counts against her. Her only discernible reaction was to shake her head “no.”

Huber, convicted on three out of four murder counts, was the most visibly upset. Pale and tearful, she grimaced, bit her lips and breathed heavily.

The verdicts were not a total victory for the prosecution. Of the 100 felony criminal charges in the case, not guilty verdicts were returned in 22, including three murder charges.

Urgo had urged jurors to view the four defendants as a “crime family,” in which each may not have used the murder weapon, but all played roles necessary for the crimes to occur. The prosecutor said Friday that, obviously, jurors did not believe that scenario because of not guilty verdicts in some instances.

“But I’m happy,” he said. “What it comes down to is, as long as I’ve got them on one murder, they’re facing the same (death) penalty.”

The court session was attended by relatives of two of the victims, who said they were not pleased, despite the guilty verdicts.

“They had no remorse for what they did,” a tearful Loretta Sams said of the defendants. Sams is the widow of Willie Newton Sams, who was slain Aug. 18, after he was abducted from an automated teller machine at a bank in West Covina.

“They didn’t care about human life whatsoever,” she said. “This just brings it all back, like it was yesterday.”

Also weeping was Maria Vega, the fiancee of Jose Avina, who was killed July 5 in Monrovia.

“The death penalty is the least they could get for all the pain and hurt they caused,” she said.

Two of the four defense attorneys, John Tyre and Gerald Gornik, said they were disappointed in the outcome, believing the prosecution had failed to provide sufficient evidence against their clients.

The defendants, through their attorneys, had basically blamed each other for the rampage.

Tyre, for instance, had argued that his client, Machuca, merely allowed her brother to stay at her West Covina apartment and that she was only marginally involved in the crimes.

Lee Coleman, Lewis’ attorney, called his client a “patsy,” who had been taken advantage of by Hubbard, who was older and more experienced in a criminal life.

But Hubbard’s attorney argued that he, too, was a fringe player who did not even befriend the others until after the string of crimes had begun.

The crimes inspired widespread fear after they first came to public attention Aug. 27, 1991.

That was when Shirley Denogean, 56, of Claremont was kidnaped at gunpoint from the Puente Hills Mall during her lunch hour. Her hands bound, she was shot to death beside the Pomona Freeway in South El Monte.

Police quickly linked the shooting to the similar midday abduction and slaying three days earlier of Elizabeth Nisbet, 49, of Diamond Bar.

Nisbet was kidnaped as she sat alone in a parked Ford Bronco while her husband made a quick dash inside the Puente Hills Mall to pay a bill. Her body was found shot inside the car, which was abandoned along the San Gabriel River Freeway in Irwindale.

The break in the case came when West Covina police linked the four defendants, whom they stopped while investigating an unrelated crime, to automated teller machine photos at the scene of one abduction. On Aug. 30, West Covina police raided an apartment complex on South Temple Avenue and arrested the four.

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