Man Guilty of Killing Off-Duty Deputy

A gang member was convicted Tuesday of executing an off-duty Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy after discovering the victim’s badge during a robbery at a Buena Park hair salon.

Relatives and the fiancee of Deputy Shayne York sobbed quietly as Kevin Boyce, 29, was pronounced guilty of first-degree murder with special circumstances that make him subject to the death penalty.

The 1997 slaying horrified peace officers because of its coldbloodedness nature and because York’s occupation prompted the killing. Prosecutors alleged that Boyce shouted “White pig!” before he shot York, who was lying beside his fiancee, in the back of the head.

The verdict, said Melanie Ayers, manager of the hair salon, brought “a bit of closure.”

“I think we’ve all lived the nightmare over and over for the better part of three years,” she said.

Boyce’s attorneys maintained during the two-week trial that it was Boyce’s accomplice, Andre Willis, who fired the shot. Willis is to be tried later this year.

York, 26, had become a deputy only two years earlier, fulfilling a lifelong ambition to follow in his father’s footsteps.

York and his fiancee, Jennifer Parish, were visiting De’ Cut Salon, where her sister worked, when two robbers burst into the shop, according to testimony.

The robbers screamed racial slurs and ordered customers and employees to the floor, snatching valuables from everyone inside. Then one of the gunmen saw the badge in York’s wallet.

He kicked York as he lay on the ground, according to testimony from Parish, who also is a Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy. The gunman asked York if he ever mistreated blacks and Crips gang members at Los Angeles County’s Wayside jail, where he worked.

“No sir,” York responded, according to Parish.

In reply, Boyce, a gang member from Compton, fired the gun at York’s head, according to prosecutors.

Parish testified that she heard the gunman say, “I always wanted to kill a . . . pig.” The robbers also found her badge but told her they didn’t kill women, she testified. They did, however, steal her engagement ring.

The men fled the salon, then robbed a pizza parlor in Yorba Linda.

Police stopped and arrested Boyce and Willis later that day as the two men drove toward Los Angeles on the Riverside Freeway. Officers said they found property taken during the robbery in the men’s car.

A key focus of the trial was a tape-recorded interview in which Boyce admitted that he killed York. Deputy Dist. Atty. David Brent told jurors that Boyce provided a detailed description of the shooting that matched witnesses’ accounts, which, Brent argued, proved the confession was genuine.

“I did everything; Mr. Willis didn’t do nothing,” Boyce told a district attorney’s investigator, according to the recording.

Boyce’s attorney, Assistant Public Defender Mark Davis, told jurors that Boyce falsely took the blame because he was the weaker of the two robbers. Davis cited a conversation the two suspects had in a holding room at the Buena Park police station, which had a hidden microphone.

On the tape, Boyce told Willis, “I didn’t kill no police.” Willis does not challenge him, Davis said.

Davis told the jury to consider Boyce’s admission that he was not happy with his life--evidence, the attorney argued, that Boyce would not mind taking the fall for his partner.

He told jurors they should convict his client only of first-degree murder.

But witnesses identified Boyce in court.

“He’s the killer,” Brent told jurors. “There’s ample evidence to show he is.”

Boyce sat silently Tuesday as the court clerk read guilty verdicts on 11 counts, including murder, robbery and burglary. But later, Boyce expressed irritation with his attorneys when asked his thoughts during a hearing to discuss evidence for the penalty phase of the trial.

“I could care less,” he said sharply. “It’s not my decision. You’ve been running this whole show, and it’s all in your hands.”

Jurors will begin hearing testimony Monday to determine whether Boyce should be sentenced to death or to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

* Times staff writer Stuart Pfeifer contributed to this story.