Son Testifies About Killing of Mother in 1993 Holdup

“Your mother would be proud of what you did that night,” Superior Court Judge J.D. Smith told the 14-year-old boy Wednesday as he stepped down from the witness stand.

With a stoicism beyond his years, Joshua Myles had calmly told a Los Angeles jury how he watched his mother being robbed and shot, then tried to give her mouth-to-mouth resuscitation in a futile attempt to save her life.

He was 9 years old at the time and was waiting with his mother to pick up his sister from a Bible study class when they were attacked on a dark Northridge street in September 1993.

His testimony came in the trial of Etienne Moore, LeCedrick Johnson and Shashonee Solomon, who face the death penalty for a series of follow-home robberies and two murders.

Authorities say that Moore and Johnson killed 37-year-old Laurie Myles even though she gave them her purse and briefcase in one of about 30 follow-home robberies they are accused of committing.

“You know that we’re here to talk about something that happened to your mom a long time ago?” Deputy Dist. Atty. Jan Maurizi asked Joshua. Choking back tears only twice, he responded to each question with quick, precise answers, as if it had all happened the day before rather than 5 1/2 years earlier.

Joshua said the night his mother was killed was in some ways like many others in his young life.

He played with a toy gun at their North Hills home, then tagged along with his mother to a photocopy store, then went to pick up his sister at Bible study at a friend’s house.

“At the time, I was 9 and I liked to push the buttons on the machine to make the copies,” he said. “I always used to follow my mom around everywhere.”

As they turned into the 8600 block of Louise Avenue, where they were headed to pick up his then-17-year-old sister Dana Martin, he noticed the eerie darkness, he said.

“It was a real dark street, and for a kid my age it kind of made me scared,” he said.

As his mother parallel parked on the street, Joshua said, he noticed a car with its headlights off pull up next to the driver’s side of their car. He saw a man come up, but he said he thought he was just a vagrant wanting to wash their windows.

“All I hear next is my mom screaming,” he said. Then came shattering glass. He told jurors that he looked over and saw a small bullet hole in the driver’s window.

Joshua testified that his mother tried frantically to drive away to safety but that the attacker had pushed out the broken glass and was holding the car back.

“I told her I was scared, but she said everything was going to be OK,” he said, choking back tears. He didn’t know she had been shot.

Joshua said the robber demanded his mother’s purse and briefcase.

“She gave him the purse and she tried to give him the briefcase, but she was slumped over and trying to breathe. She was gasping for air,” he said. “Her tongue started to turn white.

“[The robber] said: ‘Hurry up or I’ll shoot you straight in the head,’ the teenager continued. “She was really tired, so I helped her give him the briefcase. I just pushed it toward him and he reached in and grabbed it.”

As he testified, a dozen relatives sobbed in the Los Angeles courtroom, and several jurors appeared to wipe away tears as others scribbled notes.

Joshua said he watched the bandits drive off and, after they were out of sight, turned to his mother.

“I checked to see if anything was wrong with her. There was blood all over the side of her,” he said. “I tried to give her CPR.”

When that didn’t work, he said, “I sat in her lap and tried to drive the car. She had taught me to work the gears. But the car wouldn’t go anywhere.”

Desperate, he ran to a passing car and stopped the woman who was driving, he testified. He told her his mother had been shot, and she said she would call for help.

Then he ran to what he now knows is the back door of the house where his sister was, he said, but no one answered the bell.

“I ran back to the car and waited with my mom,” he said.

Joshua never got a clear look at the gunman.

After the murder, he helped police draw a composite sketch of the assailants, and a reward was offered for their capture. But the case was not solved for more than a year, until after Moore was convicted of a Reseda robbery of a police officer, who was shot during the attack. Detectives later discovered that the same gun had been used to kill Myles.

After authorities identified the defendants, they asked Joshua to look at photographs and attend line-ups at the County Jail. He never positively identified his mother’s attackers.

On Wednesday he pointed at Moore and said he was “similar” in appearance to the man who killed his mother. He did not identify Johnson.

Solomon is accused of ordering the murder of his former girlfriend, which was allegedly carried out by Johnson and Moore, a former high school star basketball player.

Last month, an accomplice who admits to carrying out several armed robberies with Moore said they had come up with a plan to follow “nice” cars at night to homes on poorly lighted streets and rob people as they got out.

He said they usually got as little as $10 or $20, which they split among the participants.