2 Arrested in Slaying of Valley Couple

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 teenage sons of the victims--Richard and Donna Landau--are not suspects in the Jan. 2 slaying, police emphasized.

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 found the cousin at his home in Long Beach.

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

Neither Jonathan Landau nor his brother Jason, 18, who was out at the time of the shootings, were involved in the slayings and both “have been completely cooperative,” homicide detective Marshall White said.

Jonathan Landau has told investigators that he let Smith into the family’s home at 10354 Owensmouth Ave. at about 11 p.m. the night of the slayings.

Jonathan had not seen Smith in the two years since Smith had moved from Chatsworth, where he briefly attended Chatsworth High School, said Capt. Vance Proctor, commanding officer of the LAPD’s Devonshire Division.

But Smith had recently contacted the younger brother 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 release details on what they allege occurred once Smith was admitted to the Landau home. Investigators believe Smith let in his cousin, who was apparently 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, White said.

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

Richard Landau, 43, and Donna Landau, 39, were shot several times in the upper torso. Jonathan, who was shot once in the right thigh, apparently escaped more serious injury by pretending to be dead, Proctor said.

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

Friends of the brothers interviewed Thursday said both Jason and Jonathan, or “Johnnie,” as he was known, got to know Smith when he 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 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. Tsurif said nothing suspicious was going on when he left shortly afterward to visit another friend.

Within an hour, a shaken Jason had arrived at that friend’s apartment with his bleeding younger 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 had 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 family was apparently 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 of the family described it as a close-knit clan that 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 boys were particularly close to their mother, but also got along well with Richard Landau, the stepfather who adopted them.

Since the slayings, the brothers have been living with their grandparents and struggling to come to grips with their personal 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.