Man Arrested in 1996 Slaying

After more than four years as a fugitive, a 27-year-old Lynwood man was found early Tuesday by officers of the LAPD Van Nuys Division in a case stemming from a youth brawl that left a teenager dead, police said.

Acting on a tip, police said they went to the home of a relative of Robert Smith’s in South-Central Los Angeles about 12:30 a.m. Tuesday. Officers and SWAT team members from the Los Angeles Police Department’s 77th Division found and arrested Smith and booked him on murder charges, authorities said.

“We feel happy and very lucky that members of the community . . . call us and give us information,” Van Nuys Division Det. Al Aldaz said. “This was the last person on the run on this case. It gives us a sense of closure.”

Smith was being held Tuesday night at the Men’s Central Jail downtown, Aldaz said.

The charges date back to Dec. 27, 1996, when Smith and four others allegedly encountered a group of young men outside an ice cream store in the 13770 block of Roscoe Boulevard, near Woodman Avenue in Panorama City.

The two groups argued and began fighting. David Sutton, 17, was fatally stabbed with a sharp object and shot with a handgun. Paramedics pronounced him dead at the scene.

The attackers fled in a vehicle, but police arrested four of the five suspects a few months later.

Smith has evaded police until investigators, following some leads, caught up with him Tuesday morning, police said.

His arraignment is pending.