Camp Pendleton

After deliberating one day, a federal jury convicted an Oceanside man of first-degree murder, robbery and kidnaping of an elderly Vista man who was slain on Camp Pendleton property.

The U. S. District Court jury’s finding that the Jan. 10 slaying of Swan Otto Bloomquist, 82, was premeditated means that Larry Wayne LaFleur, 22, is subject to a life sentence without the possibility of parole.

The jury also found LaFleur guilty of conspiracy to commit kidnaping and three counts involving use of a weapon during the crimes.

LaFleur held his head in his hands when he heard the guilty verdicts read by the court clerk.

Judge William Enright set sentencing for Sept. 18.

A co-defendant, Nick Holm, 20, of Fallbrook will be sentenced Aug. 21 to a life term without possibility of parole. He has pleaded guilty to murdering Bloomquist.

The defense argued that LaFleur was under the control and domination of Holm, who had ordered him to shoot Bloomquist after the pair kidnaped him from a Carlsbad shopping center parking lot.

LaFleur testified last week that it was he who pulled a gun on the startled man, then drove to the isolated section of De Luz Canyon near Fallbrook where Bloomquist was shot to death.

Mario Conte, one of LaFleur’s defense attorneys, said he will appeal the verdict.

Assistant U. S. Atty. Larry Burns said, “It shows the jury rejected the claim that he was forced to commit these crimes by Nick Holm.”

When the trial opened several weeks ago, the first witness was the victim’s 84-year-old widow, Nora Bloomquist, who said she left her husband in the car while she went shopping in the mall.

Nora Bloomquist wept briefly on the stand when asked to identify her husband’s personal belongings, which were found in a Fallbrook trash bin. The body was discovered five days later.

Bloomquist had been shot five times--in the head, chest and wrist.

LaFleur testified about his troubled background, which he said included sexual abuse by his stepfather.