Van Nuys Man Sentenced to Death : Courts: Lanell C. Harris was convicted of shooting father of six as the victim played cards in a park. Judge calls killing ‘coldblooded, senseless.’

A Van Nuys man who was on parole in 1991 when he fatally shot a man playing cards in a park was sentenced to death Wednesday by a judge who called the slaying coldblooded and senseless.

“The defendant, Lanell Craig Harris, should be put to death by the administration of lethal gas or lethal injection behind the walls of the state prison at San Quentin,” said Van Nuys Superior Court Judge Bert Glennon Jr.

Harris, 27, was convicted of shooting Julian Contreras as the father of six played cards Aug. 7, 1991, with several friends at the Van Nuys Recreation Center.

Harris was robbing the card players when Contreras made a move and Harris opened fire.

“When the victim fell to the ground, the defendant simply executed him by shooting him in the back twice,” Glennon said.

Harris was convicted of first-degree murder for shooting the 51-year-old Contreras. An accomplice in the robbery has never been captured by police.

The muscular Harris, appearing in court in a jail-issued jumpsuit with his arms and leg shackled, showed no emotion when Glennon announced the sentence. In contrast, his wife and mother fought back tears.

The defendant’s mother, Doris Harris, said after the sentencing that her son was innocent and would soon walk free. “If Lanell was white, this wouldn’t have happened,” she said.

“If I had the money (to hire an investigator), he would have gotten off like the Menendez brothers are going to,” she said outside Glennon’s courtroom.

Deputy Public Defender Michael Gottlieb urged the judge to overlook the jury’s sentencing recommendation and instead send Harris to prison for life.

“Death is not the answer in this case,” Gottlieb said.

Glennon refused.

“It was a coldblooded, senseless killing of a man who left a wife and six children and who the defendant later referred to as a sewer rat when bragging about the killing,” the judge said.

There is an automatic appeal in all death penalty cases to the California Supreme Court.

The jury split 10 to 2 in favor of guilt on a second murder charge stemming from the stabbing death of a South-Central Los Angeles doughnut shop employee. Deputy Dist. Atty. Shellie Samuels dismissed this charge Wednesday in light of the sentence.

Harris was on parole at the time of Contreras’ killing. He pleaded guilty in 1985 to seven felony counts, including assault with a deadly weapon, burglary and robbery. He served less than six years of a 10-year sentence before being released from state prison in September, 1990.

Evidence at the trial showed Harris had visited his parole officer the morning he gunned down Contreras.