Killer Gets 2 Consecutive Life Terms

A San Fernando Valley man was sentenced Friday to two consecutive life terms without the possibility of parole for the execution-style slayings of a Hells Angels member and his girlfriend.

Daniel Ray Waring, 44, was convicted in October of first-degree murder in the 1998 shootings of Laurence “Large Larry” Lajeunesse, 45, and Tammie Ann Brannigan, 35, in the Chatsworth garage that the couple shared.

During the trial, which lasted more than four months, Deputy Dist. Atty. Jeff Jonas described Waring as a Hells Angel wannabe who was never allowed into the notorious biker gang and repeatedly tried to inform on the bikers to get even.

“I view Mr. Waring as a social psychopath ... lying, cheating, manipulating,” Jonas said in court Friday. “He is a criminal psychopath leaving a trail of broken hearts, empty wallets and shattered lives.”

Authorities said Waring killed Lajeunesse after they had a falling out over methamphetamine dealing. They said he shot the 6-foot-2, 450-pound biker five times in the back of the head, and killed Brannigan to eliminate her as a witness.

Waring denies the killings and said it was John Kopp--later found dead with a rope around his neck--who shot the couple. Prosecutors contended that Kopp was a witness to the slayings. His death was ruled a suicide.

Before the sentencing, Waring read a prepared statement in which he addressed the court and the families of the victims.

“I could not and I did not kill Tammie Brannigan. I did not kill Large Larry,” Waring said. “I was wrongly found guilty of this case. I was not the Hells Angel wannabe; John Kopp was. I was not the one in the picture that [Jonas] painted; John Kopp was. Why else would he take his own life by hanging?”

San Fernando Superior Court Judge Shari Silver denied requests by defense attorneys Mark Brandt and Dan Factor to allow Waring to serve his prison sentences concurrently, calling Waring a “danger to society” whose crimes had become more violent.

Brandt, who said Waring was denied a fair trial because of errors and misconduct by prosecutors, police and the court, filed a notice of appeal in the case Friday.