Closing Arguments Resume Wednesday In Final Security Guard Murder Case

A reputed gang member, along with his three friends, snuck up on a 66-year-old security guard and stood watch as two of the gangsters fatally beat and robbed the victim, a prosecutor told a jury today.

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 a death sentence for Thomas, who was sentenced last week 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.

In his closing statement, Deputy District Attorney Manny Bustamante said the Gateway Posse Crips street gang members snuck up on Brown’s van.

Lee acted as a 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.

“(Lee) doesn’t want to get caught. He doesn’t want his friends to get caught,” Bustamante said, arguing that Lee is guilty of murder and robbery charges under the aiding and abetting theory.

The prosecutor said Lee admitted in an interview with detectives to being the lookout as Thomas and Lewis shattered the van’s window, beat and robbed the guard.

“These are facts only someone who was there, who was intimately involved, would know,” Bustamante said.

Brown, a 66-year-old retired Marine, died at a hospital three days after being attacked without regaining consciousness.

Lee’s attorney, John Patrick Dolan, said his client had no criminal history before he was arrested in this case.

“The evidence in this case about Darius Lee is there is no violence in his entire life history. That’s critical,” Dolan said.

The attorney also argued that the prosecution’s gang expert presented no evidence that Lee was a member of the Gateway Posse Crips, and that the prosecution did not present any forensic evidence that he was at the scene of the beating and robbery.