2 Held in Chatsworth Slayings; Police Say Motive Was Robbery

Detectives hunting for the killers of a Chatsworth film landscaper and his wife announced Thursday they had arrested two teenagers, one of them a friend of the dead couple’s son, and said robbery was the motive.

The two teen-age sons of Richard and Donna Landau, the dead couple, are not suspects in the Jan. 2 slayings, police said.

The suspects were identified as Rickey Smith, 19, and Smith’s cousin, an unidentified 17-year-old from Long Beach.

Both are in custody, police said. Smith surrendered and detectives located his cousin at home in Long Beach.

Smith, who now lives in Los Angeles, was a neighborhood friend of Jonathan Landau, the dead couple’s 15-year-old son, who was shot in the thigh when his parents were killed. Jonathan survived by pretending to be dead, police said.

Neither Jonathan Landau nor his older brother, Jason, 18, who was not home at the time of the shootings, was involved in the murders, and both “have been completely cooperative,” said homicide Detective Marshall White.

Jonathan Landau has told investigators that he let Smith into the family’s home in the 10300 block of Owensmouth Avenue about 11 p.m. the night of the slayings.

He had not seen Smith in the two years since Smith moved away from Chatsworth, where he briefly attended Chatsworth High School, said Capt. Vance Proctor, commanding officer of the Los Angeles Police Department’s Devonshire district.

But Smith recently had contacted the younger Landau and asked to come by for a visit, Proctor said. “It was a surprise to Jonathan to hear from this person after such a long time.”

Police would not give details of what they believe happened once Smith gained entrance to the Landau home. Investigators believe Smith let in his cousin--who apparently was waiting outside--after five to 12 minutes, and that at least one of them was armed with a small-caliber handgun as part of a planned robbery.

The whole incident probably lasted no longer than 20 minutes, and detectives found no sign of a struggle inside the home, Proctor said.

Richard Landau, 43, and Donna Landau, 39, were shot several times in the upper body. Jonathan was shot once in the right thigh, Proctor said.

Jewelry, pagers and other items were believed taken from the home, although detectives “don’t think an extravagant amount of money was involved,” White said.

Friends of the Landau sons said that both Jason and Jonathan, or Johnnie as he is known, got to know Smith when Smith was living in a group home in Chatsworth. Like other teenagers in the neighborhood, Smith knew the Landau home as a comfortable place to play basketball and hang out, said a friend, Max Tsurif, 17.

“Rickey called up and said he wanted to come by. Johnnie said, ‘Yeah, sure,’ ” Tsurif said.

Tsurif said he was outside the Landau home with Jonathan when Smith drove up the night of the slayings and nothing suspicious was going on when he left shortly afterward to visit another friend.

Within an hour, a shaken Jason Landau had arrived at that friend’s apartment with his bleeding brother in the back seat, Tsurif said. Jason reported that he had found Jonathan on the roof of his home and that his parents may have been shot but that he did not go inside to find out, Tsurif said.

From the beginning of their investigation, homicide detectives said robbery was the motive for the killings.

Richard Landau worked as a landscaper in the movie and television industry, most recently on the Agoura Hills set of “Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman.” The Landaus apparently were not extremely wealthy but they owned a large movie collection that they watched on a big-screen television, according to friends of the Landau sons.

Friends described the family as close-knit. The Landaus had moved to Chatsworth from a gated community in Sylmar just before the Northridge earthquake.

Friends interviewed at the time of the slayings said the brothers were particularly close to their mother but also got along well with Richard Landau, the stepfather who adopted them.

Since the murders, the brothers have been living with their grandparents and struggling to come to grips with the tragedy, police and friends said.

Their parents’ funeral was Wednesday.

“They are just trying to recover. I don’t think they will ever be normal again,” said Carlos Melendez, 20, a friend of the brothers whose apartment they went to the night of the slayings.