Killer of Pastor Gets Life Without Parole

A 20-year-old man convicted of shooting a Pasadena pastor to death and attempting to kill an apartment manager will spend the rest of his life in prison, authorities said.

Farren Bryant of Fontana received two life terms without the possibility of parole from Pasadena Superior Court Judge Terry Schwartz.

Bryant was convicted in February of the November 1997 murder of the Rev. Earle B. Neal and the kidnapping and attempted murder of an apartment manager the next month.

A jury deadlocked 9 to 3 in favor of the death penalty, and the district attorney’s office opted not to retry the penalty phase.

Parishioners found Neal’s body in his home several days after the murder. Bryant had shot him in the chest and the back of the head and had taken his car, police said.

Prosecutors allege that Bryant later kidnapped and shot his girlfriend’s apartment manager while stealing the manager’s car.

The woman was tied up, forced into her car and driven to an Altadena middle school, where Bryant shot her once in the back of the head and left her to die, police said.

She managed to crawl to the street and flag down help.