2 Facing Murder Charges in Death of Inglewood Officer

Two armed-robbery defendants are responsible for the 1988 murder of an Inglewood police sergeant even though they are not charged with pulling the trigger, the prosecuting attorney argued in Torrance Superior Court on Friday.

Joevone Elster, 23, and Van Otis Wilson, 22, both of Los Angeles, face 25 years to life for first-degree murder and robbery charges in the March 31, 1988, shooting death of Inglewood Police Sgt. George Aguilar.

Shot Himself

Police say the bullet that killed Aguilar--the first Inglewood police officer to be murdered in the line of duty in the department’s 81-year history--was fired by Leslie Holget, also of Los Angeles. Police say Holget died after shooting himself at the end of a 45-mile chase that led police to Newhall.

A 15-year veteran who worked as an undercover narcotics officer, Aguilar was shot while in a high-speed chase of suspects in the armed robbery of a Los Angeles gas station money courier.

A total of four defendants--including Elster and Wilson--were charged with robbing Masih Modani, a courier for several gas stations, of about $2,000 as he drove away from a station at Manchester Boulevard and Ash Avenue in Los Angeles. Because Aguilar was killed while investigating the robbery, all four defendants faced first-degree murder charges.

One of the defendants, 15-year-old Terrance Gross, has been found guilty of first-degree murder and sentenced to the California Youth Authority until he is 25. Patrick Anthony Carr has pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and agreed to testify in the trial of Elster and Wilson. He is awaiting sentencing.

No Opening Statements

In interviews, the two men’s attorneys offered sketchy details of their defense. The attorneys chose not to offer opening statements Friday but reserved the right to do so later in the trial.

“My man was not involved,” said Robert A. Welbourn, the attorney for Elster. “He was not at the scene of the shooting. He’s being dragged into this.”

Bruce McCaslin, Wilson’s attorney, said his client, although he was in the car with Holget, did not kill Aguilar. McCaslin suggested that the robbery ended when Aguilar was shot and only the deceased Holget can be held responsible for the officer’s death.

“It’s clear from the evidence that Holget fired the gun that killed Sgt. Aguilar,” he said.

Fired From Station

Deputy Dist. Atty. Daniel Leonhardt told two separate juries, one for each defendant, that Elster planned the robbery several weeks after he had been fired from a cashier position there.

Leonhardt gave this account:

Elster recruited the others to rob the station. After staking it out for three days, the defendants on March 31 followed Modani’s car down Manchester Boulevard in two separate cars. Holget and Wilson forced Modani out of his car at gunpoint at the intersection of Manchester and Eucalyptus Avenue. The men stole Modani’s car and fled in all three vehicles.

Soon after the robbery, Modani spotted Aguilar, whom he knew as an occasional customer at the station, and flagged him down. Aguilar radioed for help and pursued the robbers with Modani in the passenger seat of his unmarked car.

As the cars sped south on La Brea, Aguilar tried to pull alongside Modani’s car and was hit in the chest by gunfire that passed through the car’s door.

Gives Himself Up

Wilson was found by police soon afterward hiding in the stairway of a nearby apartment complex with the stolen money. Elster was arrested after he contacted KTLA reporter Warren Wilson and arranged to give himself up to officials of the Los Angeles district attorney’s office.

The prosecution’s first witness Friday was Aguilar’s widow, Rebecca, who testified that her husband had left the house early that morning to attend a police training seminar.

When asked when she saw her husband next, Rebecca Aguilar began crying. “I saw him in the hospital, and he was dead,” she said.

On a request from the defense, Judge John P. Shook asked Rebecca Aguilar to remain on call as a witness and therefore not observe the proceedings, a move that Leonhardt called “a ruse to keep her out of the presence of the jury.”

Request of Prosecution

The dual juries, a technique used occasionally with multiple defendants, were called for at the request of the prosecution in order to combine two trials while ensuring that evidence relevant to one defendant does not prejudice the other defendant’s case. Lawyers said the defendants may testify against each other and in such an instance one jury would be removed from the courtroom.

Lawyers said the trial, which will resume Wednesday, could continue for several weeks.