Man Who Killed Boy in Park Shootout Sentenced : Crime: Larry Dean Shaw gets 20 years to life on that conviction and 14 more years in wounding of two men.

A judge sentenced Larry Dean Shaw to the maximum term in state prison Friday for the murder of a 2-year-old boy who was picnicking on Easter Sunday in a park where a gang shootout erupted.

“This obviously was a horrific type of crime,” Superior Court Judge John Fisher said. “It seems to me this was one of the worst (crimes) in the Valley--if not the entire city--in 1993.”

A jury convicted Shaw in November of second-degree murder in the death of Ryan Brown, who was hit in the back of the head as his mother tried to flee the violence.

Tamara Lee had testified she was trying to grab her son and run as the shooting erupted in Encino’s Balboa Park following an Easter egg hunt.

Fisher sentenced Shaw to 20 years to life in prison for the boy’s slaying, and then added another 14 years and four months for wounding two men during the shooting spree.

According to testimony, Shaw, holding a gun in each hand, took up a position behind the car where Ryan Brown was hiding. The evidence indicated Shaw fired into the car, striking the boy with a 9-millimeter bullet. At least three other people were believed to be firing guns at the time.

Wounded in the shootout were Damon Napier, 26, of Sherman Oaks, and James Wright, 32, of North Hills.

Shaw, a 32-year-old Van Nuys man with several prior convictions and a history of gang activity, attempted to persuade the jury that he was not the man witnesses identified as holding two guns during the shootout.

“I don’t think it is fair the way I was found guilty,” Shaw told the Probation Department.

But Fisher said the evidence was overwhelming that Shaw fired the shots that killed Ryan Brown and wounded the two men, one of whom was left paralyzed.

Police said Shaw’s two guns, recovered after a brief car case, had fired at least 17 rounds.

“Based on the horrendous nature of the crime . . . he should serve the maximum amount of time under the rules,” Fisher said.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Kathleen Cady, who prosecuted the case, agreed and filed documents asking prison officials to keep Shaw locked up for the rest of his life. “He should never be released back into society,” she said.