Man Convicted of Murder in Torture-Slaying

Deliberating just one day, a Ventura County jury on Wednesday found a Los Angeles County man guilty of first-degree murder and related charges in the gruesome torture-slaying of a 20-year-old Redondo Beach man.

Spencer Brasure, who now faces a possible death sentence, showed not a flicker of emotion as the verdicts were read aloud before a crowd of spectators in Ventura County Superior Court.

But standing in the gallery behind him, the mother of victim Anthony Guest Jr. burst into tears as the first of 13 guilty verdicts was announced. She gripped the hand of her husband and, with tears streaming down her cheeks, turned to the jury to mouth the words “thank you.”

For the last three weeks, she and the jury listened to harrowing testimony of how Brasure and co-defendant Billy Davis kidnapped her son at gunpoint on Sept. 7, 1996, and tortured him for hours in the back room of their Hawthorne home.

Brasure’s friends testified that the acts--which included electric shock and forcing Guest to eat glass--were so horrific that they thought he was crazy.

In addition to finding Brasure guilty of first-degree murder, the jury Wednesday concluded that the 28-year-old defendant killed Guest during the commission of a kidnapping and by torture.

The findings propel the case into a penalty phase in which the jury must decide whether Guest should be executed or sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

The penalty phase is scheduled to begin Monday.

In closing arguments earlier this week, Deputy Dist. Attys. Robert Calvert and Mark Pachowicz called Brasure’s crimes inhuman and inexcusable. On Wednesday, Pachowicz applauded the verdicts.

“We are very pleased,” Pachowicz said after the jury was sent home. “I believe that what he was charged with was exactly what happened.”

In addition to murder, Brasure was found guilty of torture, kidnapping, arson, conspiracy, grand theft and three counts of threatening a witness. The jury found him not guilty on a fourth charge of witness intimidation.

Brasure’s defense team, attorneys Steve Powell and Charles Cassy, declined to comment on the jury’s decisions. During the trial, they did not dispute what happened to Guest but maintained that their client was not responsible.

When the penalty phase begins next week, testimony is expected to focus heavily on the horrific circumstances of the crimes.

“I am sure Mr. Calvert and myself will remind the jury of what this victim went through,” Pachowicz said.

During the trial, witnesses testified that Brasure and Davis, 21, decided to kidnap Guest and beat him as a favor to Sandra Johnson, a friend who had ended a relationship with the victim.

But Johnson told jurors that what happened went far beyond a beating.

She testified that Brasure tied Guest up with plastic trash ties and shocked him repeatedly with a makeshift electrical device that caused him to jerk in pain.

As the night wore on, Brasure stapled pieces of wood to Guest’s ears and made him eat glass, witnesses said.

Finally, Brasure and Davis put Guest in the back of a stolen van and drove him to a remote campground near Gorman, in the Ventura County back country, where they burned him alive, prosecutors said.

Maintenance workers found Guest’s charred body Sept. 13. Ventura County authorities also found a burned-out van and Guest’s wallet and address book, which launched their investigation and eventually led them to the two defendants.

Although most of the crimes occurred in Los Angeles County, local authorities handled the investigation and prosecution because Guest was murdered in Ventura County.

“There’s a lot of people who played a part,” Pachowicz said in praising the investigative team. “The Sheriff’s Department just did an incredible job.”

The pair were indicted by the Ventura County Grand Jury last October on charges of murder, torture and kidnapping in addition to other crimes.

Their cases were later separated and prosecutors decided to seek the death penalty against Brasure only. Davis, who has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, is scheduled to go to trial in November.