2nd Jury Convicts Pacoima Man of 1982 Fatal Shooting

A Superior Court jury Wednesday reached the same conclusion that another jury did 12 years ago and found a Pacoima man guilty of the 1982 shooting death of a Sylmar real estate broker.

However, this time, Herman Parrish, 43, was found not guilty of robbery and of a special allegation that the murder was committed during the commission of a robbery.

The slightly different outcome is not likely to change anything for Parrish, who is expected to be ordered to serve out the remainder of his original 25-year-to-life term when he is resentenced May 17.

The new trial was ordered last year by the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, which ruled that Parrish’s “Miranda rights” to have an attorney present during police questioning had been violated.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Robert B. Foltz Jr. said he was pleased with the verdict, particularly since he had to retry the case without any physical evidence from the first trial because the evidence was destroyed.

Parrish’s attorney, Bruce Hill, said he was disappointed because Parrish has improved himself in prison by getting an education and staying out of trouble.

“He has made himself a better person than at the time of the incident,” Hill said.

Hill said Parrish did not know that the killing was to take place the day he drove a friend to the scene of the crime. Kelly Lee Morgan, 46, of Granada Hills was convicted of being the triggerman in the shooting and sentenced in 1984 to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Police said that Morgan was hired by Manjit Singh Jandu, 51, of Northridge to kill real estate broker Ronald Colton, 45, whose body was found in the garage of an empty house in Sylmar. Police contend that Jandu wanted Colton dead because Colton foreclosed on Jandu’s house, which had been used as collateral for a $15,000 loan Colton had made to Jandu.

Jandu, who denied he was involved in the killing, was tried twice for the murder. The first trial ended in a hung jury. He was retried in April, 1985, found guilty of second-degree murder and sentenced to 15 years to life in prison.