Santa Clarita / Antelope Valley : Ex-Convict Gets 20 Years to Life in Fatal Club Shooting

An ex-convict found guilty of murder in a deadly shootout at a popular Palmdale nightclub was sentenced Thursday to 20 years to life in state prison, despite a last-minute effort by his attorney to get a second-degree murder conviction reduced.

The attorney for Dwayne Bernard Davis, 25, asked that the conviction be reduced to manslaughter because he said Davis was provoked by the man he shot.

“If you’re provoked that’s manslaughter, not murder,” said Santa Monica attorney Douglas E. McCann.

Lancaster Superior Court Judge Haig Kehiayan rejected McCann’s request, saying that when Davis fired the fatal shot, he first disarmed his victim, 30-year-old Brently Eugene Young of Lancaster, who was lying wounded on the ground.

“That’s murder, that’s malice,” Kehiayan said. “The evidence supports a second-degree murder conviction.”

Nonetheless, McCann said even though his motion for a reduced conviction was denied, it gives Davis, a San Fernando Valley resident, valid reason for an appeal.

Davis’ conviction--which besides second-degree murder, also includes using a firearm in the commission of a felony and being an ex-convict possessing a gun--stems from an Aug. 23 shootout in the parking lot at The Old Firehouse, a Palmdale Boulevard restaurant and dance club that has since closed. He and Young began shooting at each other with semi-automatic pistols shortly after 2 a.m. as about 200 people left the restaurant following a party.

The shooting started after Young threatened to “smoke” Davis, who was in a pickup truck preparing to drive away, according to court records.

Young was left dead and five others, including a pregnant teen-ager, were wounded.

Speaking for the first time in court about the shootout, Davis gave a brief explanation Thursday before his sentencing.

“I was acting off impulse,” he said. “That guy (Young) was shooting at me. I was scared for my life.”

After deliberating for four days, the jury in late April rejected Davis’ claims of self-defense.

“I had kids, I had a business out there,” Davis said Thursday. “Everything is gone.”

Young’s aunt, Ella Lane, said she had come to the court on behalf of Young’s mother, who is suffering from terminal lung cancer that had been in remission until the shooting.

“He took away her most loved person, her only son,” Lane said.

Davis has twice previously been sentenced to prison, according to court records. The two- and three-year sentences were for separate convictions involving the possession of narcotics for sale.