Friend Testifies to Defendant’s Robbery Plans

A man accused of killing a woman during a robbery as she picked up her daughter from Bible study spent several nights trolling the west San Fernando Valley for robbery victims, but stole only “chump change” from them, an alleged accomplice testified Tuesday.

Stacey Rich told Los Angeles Superior Court jurors that defendant Etienne Moore, a friend of nine years, told him he targeted “people with nice cars who looked like they had money,” followed them home and robbed them at gunpoint.

Rich, who has been granted immunity in exchange for his testimony, testified he found Moore’s plan “cool” and joined him and others for several robberies, though none involved killing.

Using colorful street slang, Rich described several poorly planned and executed crimes, sometimes foiled by screaming women and once ending with Moore accidentally shooting his car as he ran toward it to get away. Rich said the robbery participants always split the cash, but there wasn’t much to go around.

“We didn’t come up on that much money,” Rich said. “It was always chump change.”

He said his take amounted to “two or three dollars, three or four dollars. It would be beer money when I got home.”

Deputy Dist. Attys. Janice Maurizi and Edwin Greene say Moore and LaCedrick Johnson robbed about 30 people during a 1993 crime spree punctuated by the fatal shooting of Laurie Myles of North Hills, who was killed Sept. 15, 1993, after she had given up her purse and briefcase to her attackers. Her son, who was 9 years old at the time, cowered in the car as his 37-year-old mother was shot. They were parked in the driveway of a Northridge home, waiting to pick up his sister from a Bible study class.

Moore and Johnson of Canoga Park are also being tried in the robbery and killing of the 20-year-old former girlfriend of a third defendant, Shashonee Solomon, who is charged with ordering the hit. They face the death penalty, if convicted.

Rich testified that Moore had bragged of killing a woman to “get his stripes” with his gang, the Original Valley Gangsters. He said he didn’t believe Moore until he read newspaper accounts of the slaying, which prosecutors say was that of Talin Kara Tarkhanian, Solomon’s girlfriend.

Rich also testified he has heard his life is in danger because of his testimony. Greene said Rich is the only witness who will testify to committing armed robberies with the defendants.

Greene said Rich is so worried about his safety that he moved out of his neighborhood and asked to have the courtroom sealed during his testimony. Superior Court Judge J.D. Smith, who is presiding over the trial, denied that request after a closed-door hearing.

Prosecutors said a number of other witnesses have also been threatened, and authorities have relocated two families.

Security concerns got the case, which involves only San Fernando Valley crimes, transferred to a downtown Los Angeles courtroom over prosecutors’ loud complaints.

Victims’ relatives also complained that the move would effectively bar them from attending the proceedings, unless they quit their jobs.

The only observer in court Tuesday was a woman who identified herself as Moore’s friend.

His mother, who sat outside the courtroom, said she had been advised against speaking to reporters, but went on to say she backs her son, who she believes is wrongly accused.

The trial, which is expected to last six to nine months, began last week, after years of delays.

The defendants were arrested 18 months after Myles’ slaying, in the wake of a gun battle with an off-duty police officer at a Reseda gas station. Authorities said ballistics tests confirmed the same gun was used in some of the follow-home robberies.