VAN NUYS : Man, 22, Convicted in Uncle’s Murder

A Van Nuys Superior Court jury Friday convicted a Pacoima man of first-degree murder in the shotgun slaying of his uncle at a family-owned business.

The verdict against 22-year-old Asa Washington came after two days of deliberation in a case where the key witness was a sound engineer for a rock band who said he saw Washington speeding away from the murder scene.

“It was a very difficult case for the jury, but they were able to sift through the evidence and come up with the right verdict,” Deputy Dist. Atty. Shellie Samuels said. “It was a tough one. We only had one identification witness, and he saw him from a distance and only from a profile. But he was positive we had the right guy.”

Burnett Washington, 57, of Pacoima was killed by two shotgun blasts Sept. 4, 1992, inside Washington Metal Polishing, 5415 Cleon Ave., North Hollywood. Sentencing for his nephew, Asa Washington, who could receive from 30 years to life, will be handed down by Superior Court Judge John Fisher on Sept. 17.

During the weeklong trial, Samuels said that Washington displayed a “conscience of guilt” after killing his relative. She said he refused to allow police to photograph his profile and ran from police when they came to arrest him two months after the killing.

The prosecutor said Washington and the victim’s son threatened the victim six weeks before the shooting, after a court order to remove the son from the victim’s home. The victim’s son, Randall Washington, was ordered to stand trial earlier this year, but a Superior Court judge dismissed the charges because of insufficient evidence.

Key testimony in the case came from Anthony Bird, who told jurors that he saw Asa Washington driving a white van that left the metal works company after gunshots were heard. In an earlier hearing, Bird said that he only got a glimpse of the van driver, according to defense attorney Charles Lloyd.

Other evidence included a shotgun shell found in his bedroom that matched the shells found at the murder scene. Washington had testified that he was at Magic Mountain with the victim’s son during the shooting.