Police Make Arrest In 45-Year-Old Cop Killings

[TheeBadOne]

http://www.msnbc.com/local/KNBC/A1473655.asp?0dm=W237N

LOS ANGELES, 2:43 p.m. PST January 29, 2003 - Forty-five years after allegedly killing two police officers who had pulled him over for running a red light, a man has been arrested for the 1957 killings, authorities announced Wednesday.

The homicide took the lives of two El Segundo police officers, Milton Curtis and Richard Phillips, on July 22, 1957.

Gerald Fiten Mason, 68, apparently led a "very well-adjusted, normal life" in the years after the 1957 attack and was arrested without resistance at his home in Columbia, S.C., Los Angeles County Sheriff's Capt. Frank Merriman said.

"For all I know, this could be the ultimate 'scared straight,"' Merriman said, referring to a program in which youngsters are taken to talk to convicts in the hope that it will deter them from committing crimes.

Fingerprints taken from a stolen car on the night of the killings were traced to Mason through a new FBI database, authorities said.

They were linked to Mason through what authorities believe was his only criminal conviction for a 1956 burglary in South Carolina.

Curtis, 25, and Phillips, 28, were shot by a driver they stopped for running a red light on July 22, 1957.


The officers were gunned down at what is now the intersection of Rosecranz and Sepulveda.

"The message is that we in law enforcement never give up," said Sheriff Lee Baca, whose cold case unit helped investigate.

The officers "can now rest in peace with the knowledge that the killer has been caught," Baca said at a news conference.

Mason was charged by the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office with two counts of murder along with rape, kidnapping and robbery.

A suspect sketch was widely circulated at the time and a massive investigation followed. The suspect was believed to have robbed, sexually assaulted and carjacked two teenage couples before the officers stopped him. The suspect was known as the "lover's lane bandit."

"It is my great honor to announce to you today that the same agencies that began this investigation 45 years ago have taken a major step today ... to allowing these officers to rest in peace," said El Segundo Police Chief Jack Wyat.

The District Attorney's office will attempt to have Mason extradited to California. If Mason is extradited, he could face life in prison without parole.

 

[DeltaElite]

Hot Damn.
RIP Officers.

 

[Blackhawk]

The officers "can now rest in peace with the knowledge that the killer has been caught," Baca said at a news conference.

Pretty stupid statement to make Sheriff. You've just caught a suspect. You need to wait for the trial and conviction before running off at the mouth like that. Tainted jury pools, and all that, you know.

Great that an arrest has been made!

 

[DeltaElite]

He's guilty, the fingerprint proves that.
Now to convince 12 people that are not smart enough to get out of jury duty.

 

[Blackhawk]

He's guilty, the fingerprint proves that.

Don't be so sure. Proof of a fingerprint match from a 68 year old to a 45 year old crime scene print left by a 23 year old is highly impeachable. As people get older, their fingerprints tend to disappear just like they're worn away.

Besides, the guy is only accused, and he's just as entitled to the presumption of innocence before the law as anybody else. For any LEO to say he's guilty upon being arrested is very unprofessional, and probably malfeasance.

 

[Coronach]

As people get older, their fingerprints tend to disappear just like they're worn away.

Uhm ... no.

Mike

 

[Blackhawk]

Uhm ... no.

Really?

That's what they tell me when they have to go to elaborate measures to take my prints on the PD's fancy machine every time I have to get my CCW permit renewed. I'm a lot younger than that guy and my finger tips are smooth to the naked eye even though the whorls and swirls are visible under magnification.

I'm just telling you what the ID guys at the PD told me.

Whatever, he still needs to be convicted before an involved LEO makes comments like that to the public.

 

[Standing Wolf]

Finger prints do, indeed, wear with age, which makes it harder for law enforcement officers to roll good, clean, clear, crisp prints—but they're still there, and in fact, corpses have been printed weeks after death.

People are, indeed, innocent until proven guilty in courts of law, but matching finger prints are all but impossible to argue against.

 

[DeltaElite]

His prints are his prints, minor changes occur, but it is him and for me the case is closed.
Now what the near useless legal system does is up to them.
He is presumed innocent until proven guilty, but he is guilty, the prints prove that.

So why can the defense go public saying their guy didn't do it and us Le's can't go public to say he did?
Oh wait, we already arrested the guilty party, so that should be enough statement from Le.

 

[Jim March]

Can I interject a different note here?

Let's say for a sec he did it, for sake of argument.

Should we punish him?

Seriously. Right, he did some real bad stuff, then he went totally clean for 45 years.

Punish him, and what you've said is "hey crooks, no sense cleaning up your life, we'll hunt your sorry butts down until the end of time no matter what".

But, convict him and then suspend the sentence based on what he is NOW, and you send a message that if they go straight and stay straight, that will MATTER.

Which message is better for society? Seriously.

 

[PATH]

Glad they finally got him. The sad part is he already got to live his life. Those poor officers did not!

 

[Blackhawk]

So why can the defense go public saying their guy didn't do it and us Le's can't go public to say he did?

Because the defense gets to argue on appeal that the conviction was tainted because the Sheriff told the whole state that they caught the heinous murderer who's GUILTY when the arrest was made so all the jury pool unconsciously deferred to the referent power of THE SHERIFF and began that trial convinced he was in fact, guilty before hearing one single word in his defense.

Involved LEOs are obligated to keep their mouths shut if opening them will prejudice the case one way or the other. :banghead:

 

[Blackhawk]

Which message is better for society? Seriously.

Seriously? The way it is.

There's no statute of limitations on capital crimes. Murderers get to squirm and dream and worry about a million things that will expose them to the police. Every year must be miserable, and they have to be extremely careful in living their ordinary lives.

How many such criminals commit seemingly random crimes to cover up little screwups they inadvertently make?

Maybe this guy HAS been "clean" for 45 years and deserves compassion by the jury. If so, he'll probably get it whereas he would have gotten the chance to breathe some cyanide if they'd caught him 40 years ago.

The deterrent factor of being hunted down no matter how long it takes has got to be huge, but what's the deterrent if you only have to avoid getting caught for 20, 30, or 40 years?

Laws can't dispense justice. That's for people to do. But they need laws for guidance when compassion is not in order.

 

[DadOfThree]

Jim,

Punish him, and what you've said is "hey crooks, no sense cleaning up your life, we'll hunt your sorry butts down until the end of time no matter what".

I think what we are trying to do is to say to people before they commit a crime is "If you commit murder, we'll hunt your sorry butts down until the end of time no matter what.

If you don't punish him, you have told society that it is OK to commit murder (or in his case two) as long as you don't get into trouble anymore. Under this reasoning, shouldn't all criminals, no matter how serious the crime, be given a 20 year suspended sentence so that they can prove that they have been "scared straight"?

Which message is better for society? Seriously

I think the second scenario is much scarier than the first. Seriously.

 

[PATH]

I just had a thought about his defense. The first words are going to be that he has been a model citizen for 45 years. No he wasn't! He was a fugitive from justice. NAIL HIM !!!!

 

[rock jock]

Jim,

I am aghast at your statement. It might have some merit if the purpose of imprisonment was rehabilitation, but it is not. It is punishment. This man has never been held accountable for his actions. He needs to go to prison and die a slow death there. Those cops had unrealized dreams and families that will never be because of this SOB. I for one hope he rots.

 

[DeltaElite]

Actually they need to execute the maggot.
He killed two men for no reason, I don't care if he became Mother Theresa after that, he deserves to die for his crime.
They can run, they can hide, but when caught they need to die.

Blackhawk,
I think you are greatly overrating the defenses ability to claim a "tainted jury pool". I agree with the sheriffs statements and would have said the same thing.
Defense attornies are slime and will appeal even if there aren't grounds, so we might as well say what we want to say and let the legal system handle it.


Did I mention that the maggot needs to die?

 

[KMKeller]

DeltaElite - Don't hold back buddy! Say it like you mean it!

A jury of somebody's peers will hopefully do the right thing and gas this hoser.

 

[NewShooter78]

Just because he might have lead a "clean" life for 45 years doesn't mean that he has paid his debt to society. He killed two officers and terrorized a few other people as well. Not only did he commit two counts of murder, but he also kidnapped and raped and carjacked people as well. The fact that he was able to elude police for so long should be enough for any jury to return a guilty verdict in record time. The minute he commited those crimes and escaped, was the minute he was living on borrowed time.

 

[Selfdfenz]

"Fingerprints taken from a stolen car on the night of the killings were traced to Mason through a new FBI database, authorities said."

.....and this will be hole by which the defense atty gets the hoser off the hook.
If the Prosecutor can't account for every other print found on the vech and how it got there, the defense will claim the unknown prints came from the real killer. Or if the original print guy did a partial/poor job of processing the vech, the defense atty will claim they missed prints from the real shooter......Reasonable doubt.

If, OTOH, rape kits/or garments from the sexual assault victims were collected back in the day, and still can be found, its an entirely different ballgame. If I was the Prosecutor I would surely be looking.

S-