who defeated Lacey, took over the case but declined to pursue the death penalty. County District Attorney Jackie Lacey, with just days left in her final term, decided to retry Gay's case. The first ruling vacated the death penalty due to Shinn's mismanagement of the case the second ruling found a judge erred in disallowing Gay to present evidence that could have led a jury to determine he was not death penalty-eligible.įollowing the 2020 ruling, former L.A. Gay's death penalty was overturned twice - in 1998 and again in 2008. Shinn was disbarred in 1992 and died in 2006. The court also found Shinn lied to Gay in order to secure the case. Both were sentenced to death following a 1985 trial.īut in 2020, the California Supreme Court vacated Gay's original conviction for Verna's murder, arguing his attorney at time, Daye Shinn, bungled the case, failing to present evidence to the jury that might have convinced the panel he was innocent. Police and prosecutors have long accused Gay and Cummings of committing dozens of robberies in the weeks before killing Verna during a traffic stop. See also: Death Row inmate Raynard Cummings from Pacoima has one regret Raynard remains on death row in San Quentin State Prison. Gay has spent decades behind bars for the killing of Verna on June 2, 1983 on Hoyt Street in the middle of a Lake View Terrace neighborhood. "The evidence will show that Raynard, having shot Verna once, would have continued to fire that gun no matter what," Thelen said. Public Defender Monnica Thelen called the theory that Cummings passed Gay the gun "absolutely ridiculous," arguing there was no time for the handoff to occur based on witness descriptions of the shooting. He said they killed Verna because he "was a threat to their freedom." County Deputy District Attorney David Ayvazian described Gay and Cummings as "desperate, violent men" who were on parole at the time of the killing and who feared Verna would discover they were riding in a stolen car tied to their crime spree. They said Gay took a handgun from Raynard Cummings, 64, of Pacoima, his alleged partner in a string of robberies in the area, after Cummings shot Verna once from inside their car. The prosecutor said Gay and his partner killed Verna because he "was a threat to their freedom." (Boris Yaro)
0 kommentar(er)
