Reward Leads Police to Murder Suspect

Even the most optimistic public officials concede that offering a reward for information about a crime doesn’t always pay dividends.

So authorities got a pleasant surprise this summer when, after more than a year had passed since the slaying of construction worker Carl Randle, the lure of a $25,000 reward immediately led them to his alleged killer. The City Council authorized the payment of the reward money Wednesday. Two men, whose identities were not revealed by police, will receive $12,500 apiece.

Dwayne Lukas of Pacoima has been charged with the fatal shooting of Randle on Valentine’s Day 1996. The two argued briefly in the 10900 block of Jamie Avenue in Pacoima just before the killing, police said. In July, one day after a news conference announcing the reward offering, two men called Det. Patty Ferguson in the LAPD’s Foothill Division and told her where they could find Lukas.

“We found him just outside Dayton, Ohio,” Ferguson said. “He was starting a new life.”

With help from the FBI, LAPD investigators arranged to have Lukas extradited to California. He is awaiting a jury trial.

Ferguson said Lukas is not suspected of committing any crimes after Randle’s slaying. “We probably would have found him eventually, but it’s nicer that it happened sooner rather than later,” Ferguson said.