VAN NUYS : Gang Member Gets Life Term in Slaying

A 20-year-old Pacoima gang member was sentenced Wednesday to spend the rest of his life in prison for murdering a Van Nuys man who tried to assist his girlfriend after she was pushed to the sidewalk during a purse snatching.

Lamarr Leon Cooks, 20, was convicted in April of first-degree murder in the Oct. 27, 1991, shooting death of Fernando Hernandez, 19. The jury in his case also determined that Cooks shot the man during a robbery, a special circumstance allegation that carries a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Defense attorney Michael M. Duffey asked Superior Court Judge Darlene Schempp to strike the special allegation. The judge refused.

“Once the defendant has taken a gun in his hand, he must take responsibility. . . . He must face the consequences,” Schempp said.

If the judge had granted Duffey’s request, Cooks would have received a sentence of up to 30 years to life, and he could have been paroled in about 20 years.

Hernandez, 19, was walking with Lillian Martinez in the 15400 block of Vanowen Street when Cooks and his cousin, Daryl Ray Richard, approached the couple. Richard grabbed Martinez’s purse and pushed her to the ground as he made off with the bag.

As Martinez fell, Hernandez attempted to catch her, but Cooks fired one shot from a .357-magnum revolver, hitting Hernandez in the mouth.

Three days after the crime, police arrested two other men with the pistol that was later shown to be the murder weapon.

Although Martinez identified one of these two men as an assailant, both told police that they had borrowed the gun from Cooks. The men testified that Cooks had warned them to be careful because the gun had been involved in a slaying.

Police received their break in the case when Probation Department officials recovered a letter that Richard had sent to his girlfriend. During their deliberations, jurors saw the note--accompanied by a newspaper story about the Hernandez slaying--that identified Cooks as the triggerman.