Man Gets 160 Years for Role in Deputy’s Murder

After hearing wrenching testimony from the victim’s family, a judge sentenced a Los Angeles gang member to 160 years in prison for his role in the killing of an off-duty Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy at a Buena Park salon.

Orange County Superior Court Judge Frank F. Fasel said he was disturbed by the lack of remorse from the defendant, Andre Willis, who spent the hearing looking around the courtroom, seemingly uninterested in the proceedings.

“Nothing about remorse,” the judge said in the Santa Ana courtroom. “An ‘I’m sorry folks’ or something like that would have been human.”

A jury convicted Willis, 35, of murder in March for his role in the robbery and slaying; the jury rejected charges that could have led to the death penalty. Willis admitted robbing the De’Cut hair salon, but said he didn’t know his partner was going to kill Deputy Shayne York.

At Friday’s sentencing, Willis said only two words--”Yes, sir”--when Fasel asked if he understood his rights.

In September, Fasel sentenced Kevin Boyce, 29, to death for pulling the trigger in the 1997 murder. Boyce had found York’s badge while thumbing through his wallet during the robbery.

According to trial testimony, Boyce kicked York in the side and called him a “white pig.” He shot him in the back of the head as he lay on the floor. York’s fiancee, Jennifer Parish, lay next to him when he was shot and watched him bleed.

Parish, now 27, and York, who was 26, had stopped at the salon so York could get a haircut before a Las Vegas vacation.

After Friday’s sentencing, Parish said, “I went from picking out wedding flowers to picking out a casket in one week.”

Of Willis, she added: “He escaped execution but . . . his sentence will be in hell, where he belongs.”

Deputy Dist. Atty. David Brent said during the hearing that dealing with Boyce and Willis amounted to dealing “with some of the worst people in the world.”

Milton Grimes, an attorney for Willis, told the family, “I’m sorry for your loss” and said he too lost a son. He asked the court to remember that Willis was not the shooter.

Before the sentencing, Daniel York, Shayne York’s father, said he wakes up at night thinking about his son.

“Shayne was executed. Shayne did nothing. For no other reason, Shayne was a deputy sheriff who was executed. . . . The world lost a lot when Shayne died. To what extent I don’t know.”