D.A. Will Not Seek Death in Contract Murder Case

The man convicted of the 1997 contract murder of a silent movie theater owner will avoid death by lethal injection, it was announced Wednesday.

The district attorney’s office said it had decided not to retry the death penalty phase for James Van Sickle, who was convicted of orchestrating the killing of Lawrence Austin, the 74-year-old owner of the Showcase Silent Movie theater in the Fairfax district and Van Sickle’s live-in companion.

A jury deadlocked on how to punish Van Sickle, voting 9 to 3 in favor of death Feb. 18.

Because he was convicted of murder with special circumstances, Van Sickle probably will spend the rest of his life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Jeffrey Ramseyer said retrying the penalty phase probably would not render a different outcome. He said he had talked to jurors about their decision, but he would not describe the conversations.

Van Sickle, 36, a projectionist for the theater, had a rocky, seven-year business and personal relationship with Austin. He hired Christian Rodriguez for $25,000 to kill Austin on Jan. 17, 1997. An additional $5,000 was offered for the killing of then-19-year-old Mary Giles, a concession worker, to make the crime look like a robbery. Giles survived a chest wound to testify against the two men.