Gang Member Convicted of Killing Student

A 17-year-old Pacoima gang member was convicted Wednesday of murdering a Monroe High School student as he walked home from a football game nearly two years ago.

Tony Burnette Shaw, who was tried as an adult for the slaying, faces a sentence of 35 years to life in prison for killing Ricky Evans, 15, two weeks before Evans was to march in a “stop the violence” demonstration.

“There was no reason” for the shooting, Deputy Dist. Atty. Ron Goudy said. “Just an innocent person killed.”

Evans, an aspiring drummer from Panorama City, was with friends walking home from a playoff game between Monroe and Crenshaw high schools Nov. 21, 1997, when Shaw and four other teenagers pulled up behind them in a white Cadillac. Shaw, who was sitting behind the driver, yelled out the common gang inquiry: “Where are you from?”

Goudy said testimony varied about what the reply was, but either no one answered or someone in Evans’ group replied “Nowhere” or “We don’t bang,” meaning they are not gang members. Shaw responded by pulling the trigger of his 9-millimeter gun.

Authorities recovered six shell casings. Two of the rounds hit Evans in the chest and abdomen. He died there on Aqueduct Avenue at about 9:30 p.m.

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The other teenagers in the car did not face charges in connection with the shooting, Goudy said, because they did not know Shaw, who was 15 at the time, was armed or was going to shoot.

“We had no evidence that they knew this was going to happen,” Goudy said.

The four teenagers made the prosecution’s case, testifying that their friend shot Evans to death.

In his defense, Shaw called two alibi witnesses who said he was somewhere else at the time, but those witnesses contradicted each other, Goudy said. One said Shaw was at a football game between Taft and San Fernando high schools and the other said he was at his grandmother’s house.

Shaw’s attorney could not be reached for comment.

Testimony lasted less than a week. Jurors convicted the defendant of first-degree murder after deliberating for about a day.

Shaw is scheduled to be sentenced next month by Superior Court Judge Meredith C. Taylor.