Final Murder Trial Underway In Security Guard Killing

A reputed Palm Springs gang member served as a lookout in the fatal beating and robbery of a 66-year-old security guard, a prosecutor said today, but the defendant’s lawyer denied his client was involved in the attack.

Darius Lee, 21, faces the death penalty if convicted of first-degree murder and other charges stemming from the June 9, 2007, attack on Bower Security Co. guard Wallace Brown near Rosa Parks Road and El Dorado Boulevard.

Co-defendants Jerrett Lewis, 20, and Jamar Thomas, 21, were previously convicted of first-degree murder.

A jury rejected the death sentence for Thomas, who was sentenced Friday to a no-parole life prison term. Lewis, who is awaiting sentencing, was a juvenile at the time of the crime and faces life behind bars without parole.

Murder and other charges were dismissed against a fourth defendant, Akil Williams, when a judge ruled there was insufficient evidence to bring him to trial. He was also accused of being a lookout.

In his opening statement, Deputy District Attorney Manny Bustamante said the four were dressed in the colors of the Gateway Posse Crips street gang at a Valero gas station on Rosa Parks Road 15 minutes before the beating.

Lee acted as lookout as Thomas and Lewis hurled rocks at Brown’s van, shattering the windows, before pulling the guard from the vehicle and beating him for his wallet and cell phone, Bustamante said.

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

Lee’s attorney, John Patrick Dolan, said there is no forensic evidence that his client was involved in the beating or robbery.

Dolan told the six-man, six-woman jury that they would hear from a defense expert that Lee could not have been a member of the gang because of an auto-immune disease that made him susceptible to bruising.

Prospective members are required to be “jumped in,” or beat up by other gangsters, to prove they can handle being roughed up, according to the attorney.

Lee, who was dropped off at a cousin’s house before the beating, was working as a guard for Olin Security and did not need the money from the robbery, Dolan said.