Meet 191 L.B. third-strikersThis is a reproduction of the Long Beach Press-Telegram series on Three Strikes. Dated November 1, 2000. |
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| By Wendy Thomas Russell Staff writer |
| To hear activists talk, there are two types of felons being locked away for 25 years to life under California's three-strikes law: |
| Rapists and pizza thieves. |
| The controversial law, passed in 1994, provides prison sentences of 25 years to life for people with two or more serious or violent felonies on their records who go on to commit another felony, violent or not. |
| In debates, three-strikes supporters like to cite Richard Allen Davis, whose crime and callousness are widely credited with sparking passage of the law. A paroled rapist, kidnapper and robber, Davis snatched a 12-year-old Petaluma girl from her bedroom and killed her in 1994. |
| Opponents invoke the case of Jerry Dewayne Williams, a former robber who stole a piece of pizza from a group of boys near the Redondo Beach Pier and got 25 years to life. His sentence was later reduced following public protests. |
| The crux of the debate should third-strike sentences go only to those whose third strike is serious or violent has become a leading issue in the Los Angeles County District Attorney's race. |
| Incumbent Gil Garcetti's office prosecutes both kinds of third-strike cases violent and nonviolent disposing of most of them with plea-bargained lesser sentences. |
| Challenger Steve Cooley says if he's elected, he would stop prosecuting nonviolent crimes as third-strike cases. That stance would have eliminated about 70 percent of the third-strike sentences imposed in the Long Beach courthouse during the law's first five years. |
| So, who are the people the county has been sending away for 25 years to life? How serious were the crimes that ultimately put them in prison? And what were the previous crimes that set them up for third-strike status in the first place? |
| To find out, the Press-Telegram studied 191 of the 196 Long Beach cases that ended in three-strikes convictions during the law's first five years. (Five of the case files were unavailable for review.) |
| Our study revealed: |
| Men far outnumber women: 187 of those studied are men, while only four are women. |
| Their average age is about 39. |
| Of the 70 percent convicted of nonviolent third offenses, the most common third strikes were burglary, drug possession, petty theft and possession of a firearm by a felon. |
| Most of the remaining 30 percent committed robbery as a third strike. Other crimes included assault with a deadly weapon, rape and murder. |
| Many of the third-strike crimes were committed in the neighborhood where the perpetrator lived. |
| Two men are on the list twice for separate third-strike offenses. Their sentences will be served consecutively. |
| More than a quarter of the third-strikers had at least four previous strikes serious or violent felonies on their records at the time of their arrest. The number of prior strikes ranged from two to 15; the average was three. The average number of prior felonies, including strikes and nonstrikes, was five. |
| The prior strikes on record many of which were out-of-state offenses ran the gamut. The most common was robbery. |
| More than 40 percent had some type of drug offense reflected in their criminal files. Others may have had drug problems that were not recorded. |
| Twelve percent had committed some type of sexual offense in their pasts. Three-quarters of them were locked up for nonviolent third strikes. |
| Five percent had committed at least one of their prior strikes as a juvenile. Violent juvenile offenses such as rape, armed robbery and murder, may be counted as prior strikes if the juvenile was at least 16 years old at the time. |
| Fifty-eight of the strikers studied received longer sentences than 25 years to life. They were convicted of more than one "third strike," or other sentence-enhancement laws were invoked in addition to the three-strikes law. |
| For example, Glen Schafer was sentenced to 28 years to life for drug possession because the law allows an additional year to be tacked onto his sentence for every prior felony. He had three. |
LONG BEACH'S 3RD-STRIKE CONVICTIONS |
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| NAME | AGE | THIRD STRIKE | WORST PRIOR STRIKE | NO. OF PRIOR STRIKES | NO. OF OTHER FELONIES | SENTENCE | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Barger, Mark | 24 | Assault on police officer | Robbery | 2 | 0 | 25/L | ||||||
| Wilson, David | 41 | Assault on a police officer | Robbery | 3 | 1 | 35/L | ||||||
| Torres, Padilla | 31 | Assault with a deadly weapon | Robbery | 2 | 0 | 26/L | ||||||
| Brock, Aaron | 34 | Assault with a deadly weapon | Robbery | 3 | 0 | 111/L | ||||||
| Clayton, Curtis | 34 | Assault with a deadly weapon | Robbery | 3 | 1 | 80/L | ||||||
| Bryant, Wayne | 47 | Assault with a deadly weapon | Robbery | 3 | 1 | 25/L | ||||||
| Dominici, Joseph | 34 | Assault with a deadly weapon | Robbery | 8 | 0 | 25/L | ||||||
| Duron, Guadalupe | 46 | Assault with a deadly weapon | Manslaughter | 2 | 1 | 31/L | ||||||
| Burroughs, Marichal | 31 | Assault with a deadly weapon | Attempted murder | 2 | 0 | 25/L | ||||||
| Mendenhall, Troy | 34 | Assault with a deadly weapon | Assault | 4 | 0 | 121/L | ||||||
| Jones, James | 30 | Assault with a deadly weapon | Injury on a spouse | 3 | 2 | 49/L | ||||||
| Burkley, Albert | 35 | Attempted carjacking | Robbery | 3 | 0 | 35/L | ||||||
| Kent, Michelle | 30 | Attempted robbery | Robbery | 2 | 3 | 30/L | ||||||
| Faletogo, Aragon | 25 | Attempted robbery | Robbery | 2 | 0 | 25/L | ||||||
| Fidel, Mark | 46 | Attempted robbery | Robbery | 3 | 1 | 30/L | ||||||
| Thomas, Marvin | 37 | Attempted robbery | Robbery | 2 | 3 | 35/L | ||||||
| Canela, Ascension | 34 | Battery | Burglary | 4 | 0 | 40/L | ||||||
| Stewart, Tony | 37 | Battery of police officer | Robbery | 2 | 4 | 30/L | ||||||
| Warren, Timothy | 33 | Battery with serious injury | Robbery | 2 | 1 | 35/L | ||||||
| Bennet, Robert | 47 | Carjacking | Rape | 2 | 2 | 44/L | ||||||
| Cooksey, Kenneth | 40 | Child abuse | Rapte | 2 | 2 | 25/L | ||||||
| Creswell, Robert | 63 | Inflicting harm on elderly adult | Robbery | 4 | 6 | 55/L | ||||||
| Amos, Terrance | 37 | Lewd act with child under 14 | Robbery | 3 | 0 | 65/L | ||||||
| Allison, Andre | 34 | Lewd act with child under 14 | Lewd act with child | 6 | 1 | 25/L | ||||||
| Thomas, Robert | 29 | Murder | Kidnapping | 2 | 0 | 120/L | ||||||
| Jackson, Bobby | 43 | Murder | Robbery | 3 | 2 | 40/L | ||||||
| Burr, Gregory | 36 | Murder | Robbery | 2 | 4 | 110/L | ||||||
| Tillman, Eldon | 40 | Oral copulation with child under 14 | Assault | 2 | 1 | 40/L | ||||||
| Martin, James | 36 | Rape | Robbery | 2 | 0 | 39/L | ||||||
| Jackson, Demetrius | 39 | Rape | Lewd conduct | 2 | 0 | 385/L | ||||||
| Garrett, Robert | 42 | Robbery | Arson | 2 | 0 | 35/L | ||||||
| Lewis, Jason | 22 | Robbery | Burglary | 2 | 0 | 25/L | ||||||
| Lewis, Kevin | 38 | Robbery | Burglary | 4 | 0 | 25/L | ||||||
| Mingo, Frederick | 44 | Robbery | Robbery | 10 | 1 | 35/L | ||||||
| Andrew, Billy | 40 | Robbery | Robbery | 2 | 0 | 40/L | ||||||
| Bridgewater, Michael | 42 | Robbery | Robbery | 2 | 0 | 35/L | ||||||
| Brown, Ernest | 32 | Robbery | Robbery | 3 | 0 | 37/L | ||||||
| McCowen, Curtis | 32 | Robbery | Robbery | 6 | 0 | 40/L | ||||||
| Moore, Anthony | 35 | Robbery | Robbery | 3 | 5 | 40/L | ||||||
| Ransom, Bryan | 42 | Robbery | Robbery | 2 | 2 | 35/L | ||||||
| Delatorre, Steven | 46 | Robbery | Robbery | 2 | 0 | 55/L | ||||||
| Lackey, Harvey | 30 | Robbery | Robbery | 2 | 3 | 25/L | ||||||
| Stove, John | 28 | Robbery | Robbery | 2 | 2 | 25/L | ||||||
| McGee, Kendle | 35 | Robbery | Robbery | 2 | 2 | 30/L | ||||||
| Pabon, Miguel | 34 | Robbery | Robbery | 2 | 0 | 25/L | ||||||
| Richardson, Richard | - | Robbery | Robbery | 3 | 1 | 30/L | ||||||
| Aguirre, Frank | 52 | Robbery | Forcible sodomy | 4 | 0 | 40/L | ||||||
| Funches, George, Jr. | 40 | Robbery | Lewd act with child | 5 | 3 | 40/L | ||||||
| Burts, Tony | 36 | Robbery | Assault | 3 | 2 | 35/L | ||||||
| Blanco, Jose | 24 | Robbery | Assault | 3 | 0 | 35/L | ||||||
| White, Lawrence | 37 | Robbery | Assault | 4 | 2 | 65/L | ||||||
| Garcia, Lawrence | 51 | Robbery | Manslaughter | 4 | 2 | 25/L | ||||||
| Hightower, Donald | 34 | Sexual battery by restraint | Robbery | 2 | 3 | 87/L | ||||||
| Ford, Tyrone | 35 | Shooting into inhabited dwelling | Robbery | 2 | 1 | 35/L | ||||||
| Teal, Bennie | 40 | Terrorist threats | Spousal rape | 4 | 1 | 25/L | ||||||
| Jones, Gregory | 41 | Terrorist threats | Manslaughter | 3 | 3 | 29/L | ||||||
| Smith, Michael | 30 | Threatening school officer | Robbery | 2 | 2 | 25/L | ||||||
| Sage, Gerald | 60 | Voluntary manslaughter | Robbery | 2 | 4 | 26/L | ||||||
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