Gang Member Gets 97 Years for Role in Gang Rape, Burning

A gang member who played a central role in the brutal rape and attempted murder last year of a young woman in South-Central Los Angeles was sentenced Thursday to a maximum term of 97 years in state prison.

As a result of severe burns the 26-year-old woman suffered in the attack, doctors were forced to amputate the victim’s left arm, left leg and both breasts, authorities said.

Calling the defendant, Alfred (Killer) Scott, 29, “a threat to society,” Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Ronald S. Coen heeded the plea of Deputy Dist. Atty. Ralph Shapiro in imposing the maximum sentence.

“These crimes (exhibit) a high degree of cruelty, viciousness and callousness,” the judge said.

Scott was found guilty last month of 12 felonies--including attempted murder, kidnaping and rape in concert--stemming from the Jan. 9, 1986, attack in an alley off the 8000 block of South Hoover Street.

“The victim in the case was accosted by these five gang members . . . they grabbed her and dragged her into this alley,” Shapiro said. “In the alley, they took turns performing various sex acts . . . (and) after they did . . . they threw her in a big dumpster and put a Christmas tree on top of her and lit the tree and her on fire.

“That’s what caused the severe injuries.”

Shapiro said that Scott was one of the attackers who set the tree aflame.

The victim, barely conscious, was discovered by a police officer who summoned paramedics, Shapiro said. She was hospitalized “for months,” the prosecutor added.

Scott, whose nickname was bestowed by fellow gang members, was the last of three adults to be sentenced in the attack.

In a separate case, Mark A. Green and Cedric Harmon, both 18, were sentenced to prison terms of 34 years and 69 years, respectively, Shapiro said. Two juveniles involved in the incident were also ordered to serve time in custody, the prosecutor added.

During the trial, the victim testified from a wheelchair. Before she was struck in the head and lost consciousness, she said she screamed for help.

Then, she testified, “someone said, ‘We got to kill her. She knows me.’ ”

Outside the courtroom, Scott’s mother, Earnestine Hatley, told United Press International that her son had attempted to stop the rape but was told by the other assailants that they would kill him if he tried to intervene.