TV Tip Leads to Suspect in Slaying

A suspected gang member wanted in connection with three South Los Angeles homicides, including the 1984 shooting of a gifted high school athlete, was arrested this week after a tip from a viewer of the television show “America’s Most Wanted.”

Edwin Oswald Smith, 30, was arrested at his home in Lancaster on Wednesday by homicide detectives from the Los Angeles Police Department, said Det. Carolyn Flamenco.

“I got a sense of relief” after hearing of the arrest, said LeeBertha Pickett-Allen, mother of Earnest Pickett Jr. “Ernie was one of the best young people, one of the kindest, one of the most sensitive.”

Pickett was fatally wounded when he stepped into a shootout involving rival gang members while walking to baseball practice at Dorsey High School in January 1984. His death triggered widespread outrage and led his mother to found Justice for Homicide Victims and Loved Ones of Homicide Victims, two support groups still functioning in the South Los Angeles area. A college scholarship fund was created in Pickett’s name.

Smith, who was being held at the LAPD’s Parker Center in downtown Los Angeles, was scheduled to be arraigned Monday on three counts of murder, said Flamenco, of the LAPD South Bureau Homicide Division.

Smith is suspected of killing Pickett and Ronald Gregorie, 25, who police said was a gang member involved in the shootout and Smith’s intended victim.

Smith is also wanted in connection with the 1993 slaying of Ronald Miller, a south Los Angeles ex-convict who had been counseling children to stay away from drugs and gangs at the time of his death, Flamenco said.

“It’s a great feeling to know that after two years of hard work it finally came together,” Flamenco said. “It would not have happened if it were not for the public’s persistence.”

The public was not always helpful.

Three days after the gunfight in which Pickett was killed, police arrested Smith as a suspect, Flamenco said. He was released from custody because witnesses--who police said were intimidated by Smith’s gang, the Rollin’ 30 Crips--would not testify. A judge ruled there was not enough evidence to bring the case to trial.

Police say Smith continued living in the same neighborhood and other parts of the county for the next several years, and was arrested a number of times before he allegedly killed Miller and dropped out of sight.

Flamenco said the Pickett investigation was reopened in 1994, after an alleged eyewitness came forward.

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After “America’s Most Wanted” aired a segment on Smith on March 30, 1996, detectives received a tip from a caller who recognized the last four digits on the car Smith was driving. They searched Department of Motor Vehicles records and found a red Camaro registered to Randy Carl Lewis of Lancaster.

Flamenco said photos of Lewis and Smith--now about 50 pounds heavier and wearing prescription glasses--matched.

Detectives found Smith living with a woman and his 5-year-old son.

“I’ll be in court every day of the trial,” Pickett-Allen said. “That’s my duty.”