Break in Brothers’ Killings Expected

A gunman dressed as a postal worker knocked on the door of an Inglewood home four years ago.

He pushed his way in and fatally shot two brothers who had recently been awarded a $380,000 life insurance settlement for their mother, a Los Angeles police officer who died of cancer.

Detectives had long suspected the killings were connected to allegations the brothers had made just before their deaths that their attorney had embezzled much of the life insurance payment.

Authorities today are expected to announce a break in the case.

Prosecutors plan to charge a friend of the attorney -- Timothy Mack -- with murder, said district attorney spokeswoman Jane Robison.

Both Mack and the lawyer, Angela Fawn Wallace, are behind bars after being convicted of embezzling the settlement from the brothers -- a verdict that came after their deaths.

According to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, Mack was being held Thursday at North County Correctional Facility awaiting a court appearance today on murder charges. Wallace has not been charged in connection with the killings.

The mystery of the brothers’ killings has long haunted Inglewood officials, who on Thursday expressed hope that the case might finally come to a conclusion.

“In this case, there were two young people that had inherited money from their mother, and of course it appeared to be a professional hit that was placed on these two youngsters, so obviously I was concerned,” said Inglewood Mayor Roosevelt F. Dorn.

The court appearance marks a turning point in a long investigation by Inglewood police detectives in the killing of Howard Byrdsong, 20, and his 18-year-old brother, Jontrae.

It’s a story that began in June 2000 when Wallace approached the Byrdsongs at the funeral of their mother. Shiree Arrant had been a Los Angeles police officer who raised the brothers on her own. She had developed a cancerous brain tumor.

At the time of the funeral, Wallace was a once high-flying attorney who had fallen on hard times. She had once practiced out of a Beverly Hills office, representing prominent clients such as basketball legend Magic Johnson and rap star Dr. Dre.

But in 1998, Wallace pleaded no contest in State Bar Court to seven counts of professional misconduct, including mishandling a client’s money. She was suspended from the bar for two years.

At the end of their mother’s funeral, the Byrdsongs agreed to hire Wallace to help them settle their mother’s estate, including the life insurance money and her home, both of which were left to Howard Byrdsong, according to court documents.

The insurance company agreed to pay the brothers $380,000 to settle the policy. Prosecutors later alleged that Wallace deposited the insurance check in an account in Howard Byrdsong’s name using a forged power of attorney, prosecutors have said.

Wallace then began spending the money on herself without the Byrdsongs’ permission, pocketing some of the cash for herself and writing checks to pay a friend’s legal fees, prosecutors alleged at the embezzlement trial.

An angry Howard Byrdsong contacted prosecutors to investigate the theft. Wallace allegedly sent a representative to him in May 2001, offering to pay him $268,000 if he withdrew the complaint, which he refused to do, prosecutors said.

Then that May 7, Mack allegedly dressed as a bank employee and urged Howard Byrdsong to sign a $125,000 settlement that would release Wallace from any liability -- a proposal he also shot down, prosecutors alleged in the embezzlement trial.

Then on June 6, a man wearing a U.S. Postal Service uniform approached the family friend’s home where the sons stayed. According to police, Regina Martin opened the door, and the man said he had a package for the Byrdsongs and needed one of them to sign for it.

After Martin asked why she couldn’t sign for the package, the man struck her in the head with a pistol, officials said.

Then one of the sons walked into the living room and the gunman allegedly shot him in the chest. He then tracked down the other son in a back room and shot him in the head, police said.

The killings immediately seemed peculiar to authorities -- not just because of the disguise but because the brothers were executed while the family friend was allowed to survive. The case took another turn when detectives learned that the brothers had filed a complaint against Wallace.

As Inglewood detectives investigated the killings, Los Angeles County prosecutors charged Wallace and Mack with embezzling the money from Arrant’s life insurance policy.

A jury convicted them in December 2002, and both are serving six-year prison terms.

Though Inglewood police have long thought of Wallace as a suspect in the shootings, the district attorney’s office declined to say whether Wallace was a suspect.

Robison said the district attorney’s office plans to charge Mack, 49, with the brothers’ killings, as well as the unrelated murder of Norman Fields. Authorities said that killing was in retaliation for the death of Mack’s brother.

Prosecutors will decide later if they will pursue the death penalty against Mack, Robison said.

Though the Inglewood detectives who investigated the brothers’ killings could not be reached for comment, Mayor Dorn praised the Police Department for never giving up on the case.

“I know that when you do great investigative work, sometimes it takes a long time, even though you’re doing the best you can possibly do,” Dorn said. “You can only act when you have developed evidence that you can take before a grand jury and a jury.”