Simi Valley : Lawyer Links Client With Manslaughter

A Littlerock, Calif., man who helped kill an acquaintance in a remote canyon outside Simi Valley is guilty of manslaughter rather than murder, his attorney told jurors as the trial got underway Wednesday.

Attorney James M. Epstein of Los Angeles did not dispute that his client, Anthony Adams, 28, killed Christopher Landry of Los Angeles, but he described it as a spontaneous event, where things were said and done so quickly that Landry was dead before Adams realized what had happened.

Adams and Alan Abraham, 30, of Oceanside are charged with murder in the death of Landry, 21, who disappeared on April 6, 1986. The two were arrested in December, two months after Landry’s skull was found off Black Canyon Road.

Abraham is scheduled for trial in June. The defendants must be tried separately because each implicated the other while confessing to police.

In his opening statement, Deputy Dist. Atty. Peter D. Kossoris said the evidence is sufficient to convict Adams of murder, although he did not specify first- or second-degree.

Kossoris said that it was Adams’ .9-millimeter gun that was used to kill Landry, and that after the slaying, Adams repainted his truck and got rid of the weapon.

Epstein said Adams was afraid that Landry would harm him because he had failed to buy cocaine with the money that Landry’s roommate had given him.

Adams and Abraham told Landry that they were driving him to Simi Valley to try to get drugs, but Adams crashed his truck on the way. Then during an altercation that ensued, Abraham and then Adams shot Landry, Epstein said.