WOODLAND HILLS : Man Convicted in 1986 Murder Case

Nearly seven years after a Woodland Hills man was shot to death, a Ventura County Superior Court jury on Friday convicted a 28-year-old Littlerock man of second-degree murder in the slaying.

Anthony Adams also was convicted of using a firearm in the killing of Christopher Landry, 21. Landry, a supermarket meat cutter, disappeared in April, 1986.

Adams and another man, Alan Abraham, 30, of Oceanside, were arrested last December, two months after Landry’s skull was found off Black Canyon Road near Simi Valley.

Abraham is scheduled to go on trial in June.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Peter D. Kossoris presented evidence that Landry was killed because he was pressuring Adams to deliver cocaine that Landry’s roommate had paid for. Kossoris had urged the jury to return a verdict of first-degree murder.

Defense attorney James M. Epstein of Los Angeles acknowledged that Adams had taken part in the shooting but maintained it was manslaughter because it occurred in the heat of passion.

After less than a day of deliberation, jurors returned a second-degree murder verdict, a decision that both attorneys said they expected.

Adams faces a sentence of 17 years to life in prison, Epstein said. Judge Lawrence Storch scheduled sentencing for April 26.