HUNTINGTON BEACH : Heist, Getaway Fatality Draw Stiff Sentence

A 23-year-old man involved in a deadly car crash while fleeing a bank robbery was sentenced to 20 years to life in prison Friday in a hearing marked by emotional testimony by the grieved families of the defendant and victim.

Matua Mongo Rushing of Los Angeles, whose vehicle killed another motorist in the 1992 crash, wept as his grandmother and other family and friends pleaded for a sentence less than the maximum so that he may someday do good with his life.

“Matua does not fall into that category of the hardened, heartless killer,” said Stan Sanders, a well-known Los Angeles civic activist who is related to the defendant by marriage. “He is a man who comes from a very good family and has a chance to contribute.”

David M. Hungerford III, whose father was killed in the collision at Springfield Street and McFadden Avenue in Huntington Beach, described his loss to the judge.

“I looked up to my father as being the kind of man I someday wished to be,” he said, telling of his father’s involvement with Calvary Chapel and the homeless.

“I valued his advice and enjoyed his company,” the 24-year-old college student said. “He was a friend, a confidant, a role model.”

A Superior Court jury convicted Rushing in May of second-degree murder, burglary and robbery with use of a gun in connection with the heist. Rushing had taken about $700 from Guardian Savings and Loan in Huntington Beach and, after waving a gun at a guard, was speeding away from police when his vehicle collided with that of Hungerford, a 57-year-old Tustin resident.

Before trial, Rushing pleaded guilty to a previous bank robbery in Huntington Beach and had served time in Los Angeles County Jail for a 1991 robbery conviction, according to a pre-sentencing report.