Judge Refuses To Throw Out Gang Member’s Murder Conviction

A gang member convicted in the fatal beating of a 66-year- old security guard has a history of violent crimes, including the assault and kidnapping of two Marines, a prosecutor today told a jury that will recommend if the defendant spends his life behind bars or is sentenced to die.

Attorneys gave opening statements today in the penalty phase of trial for Jamar Thomas, 21, who was convicted Wednesday of the June 9, 2007, attack on Bower Security Co. guard Wallace Brown near Rosa Parks Road and El Dorado Boulevard.

The six-man, six-woman jury also found true special circumstance allegations of committing a murder for the benefit of a gang and murder in the commission of a robbery.

Deputy District Attorney Manny Bustamante has argued that Thomas was one of four defendants who dragged Brown from his van before beating him at a construction site in the northern end of Palm Springs.

Brown, a retired Marine, died at a hospital three days later without regaining consciousness.

The prosecutor asked the panel to make the “appropriate morally just decision” of whether Thomas should spend life in prison without parole or die.

Bustamante said the jury will hear evidence about two middle school incidents when Thomas reportedly punched a child to take a bike and another student to steal his money.

The prosecutor also said the panel will also hear evidence about the defendant’s alleged involvement in the assault and kidnapping of two Marines near where the security guard was beaten. The attack occurred the week before Brown’s death, according to Bustamante.

“Those two Marines ended up beat up, assaulted,” Bustamante said, adding that the jury will also hear from the victim’s family about the impact of Brown’s death on their lives.

Thomas’ attorney, Demitra Tolbert, asked that the panel spare the life of her client, who was raised by his father because his mother was addicted to crack cocaine and heroin.

“His mother abandoned him because she was unable to take care of him,” Tolbert said, adding that Thomas was raised alongside the gangs, drugs and violence in northern Palm Springs.

She also asked the panel to take into account that Thomas was “barely 18 at the time of these events.”

Tolbert said the evidence that Thomas was involved in the assault on the Marines was “weak,” and also asked the panel to analyze the severity of his juvenile crimes.

“Please listen to the evidence and determine what is genuinely misdemeanor behavior and what is more serious,” she said.

Earlier today, Tolbert asked that her client’s conviction be thrown out and a new trial be held, arguing that the jury may have been tainted by media coverage.

Riverside County Superior Court Judge James Hawkins denied the motion, but he barred all video and still cameras from covering the penalty phase of Thomas’ trial.

Tolbert argued the jury that convicted Thomas was tainted by comments on a radio station made by a court reporter last week, as well as subsequent TV coverage of that interview.

The court reporter had called into the news-talk station known as KNEWS 94.3 FM Tuesday night — the night before the guilty verdict in the case was reached. The station simulcasts on AM radio at 970, 1140 and 1250.

A woman who identified herself as Carol told the station, “It’s grizzly. They had no reason to kill him. They only did it to make themselves look better because they’re cold and vicious gang members. The thought that they had no regard for human life is unbelievable, yet it’s true and it’s sickening.”

There was no question raised in court about the authenticity of her employment.

The court reporter who gave her opinion in the Tuesday afternoon radio interview was not the person who worked on the guilty phase of the Thomas trial, but Tolbert argued that the statement was “prejudicial because it came from court staff.”

“This has been played and replayed on the news … ,” Tolbert said. “It has been permanently placed on the Internet.”

Hawkins said he did not believe the statements were prejudicial.

“You have no evidence that anyone (on the jury) has heard it,” Hawkins said.

There was no immediate word if “Carol” may face any kind of action regarding her employment due to her call to the radio station.

Also charged in Brown’s death and awaiting trial are alleged Northside Gateway Posse Crips gang members Darius Lee, 21; Jerrett Lewis, 20; and Akil Williams, 19.