Investigators Let Admitted Hit Man Keep $3,000 Fee

Orange County district attorney investigators watched the admitted killer of a strip-club owner collect $3,000 for the hit last year, then let him keep the money while he was working for them undercover, an investigator testified Monday.

Lawyers for a suspect in the case were highly critical of the authorities’ actions, saying they should have seized the cash, not let a suspected killer profit from murder.

“It’s ludicrous,” said Richard Hirsch, whose client, Michael Woods, is accused of ordering the 1989 machine-gun slaying of Horace “Big Mac” McKenna. Morton’s testimony came during a preliminary hearing at which Superior Court Judge Clay M. Smith ruled there is enough evidence for the case against Woods to proceed to trial.

The accused hit man, John Patrick Sheridan, allegedly confessed last year to killing McKenna but was released for nine months to work undercover for authorities before they arrested him. Investigators credit Sheridan’s work for the arrests last year of Woods and a third suspect, David Amos. Even if Sheridan is later convicted, he will not have to return the money, which he has spent, according to the testimony Monday.

During the investigation, authorities said, they watched Amos make the cash payment to Sheridan--a decade after the murder. They photocopied the money and gave it back to Sheridan, district attorney investigator Rick Morton said.

Morton said he does not know how Sheridan spent the money, and authorities have no plans to collect it, even if Sheridan is convicted.

It is common for law enforcement agencies to pay their informants but rare for them to let an admitted killer pocket money for a hit, legal experts said.

“Unbelievable,” said Capistrano Beach lawyer Dean Steward, who has worked dozens of cases with police informants. “That’s far worse than a straight payment. That smacks of participation in the crime itself.”

Morton defended authorities’ actions in the case. He said Sheridan was going to spend several days with Amos after the payment and his cover would have been blown if he did not have the money.

“It’s a very unorthodox thing we did,” Morton said. “But we did it and the bottom line is we got the people responsible for it. So I can live with all the flak from the defense attorneys.”

The arrests in October of Woods, Amos and Sheridan capped one of Orange County’s most baffling murder mysteries. McKenna, a former California Highway Patrol officer, was shot repeatedly as he arrived at his gated Brea ranch in a chauffeur-driven limousine.

Woods is accused of ordering McKenna’s killing so he could take over a string of Los Angeles County strip bars the pair operated. Woods allegedly paid $50,000 to Amos, who in turn is accused of giving $25,000 to Sheridan to carry out the killing. The $3,000 paid last year was part of a bonus Amos had long promised Sheridan, investigators said.

Defense lawyers in the case have spent months criticizing authorities’ involvement with Sheridan, an ex-convict who allegedly said he killed McKenna as a favor to Amos.

But Morton said that without Sheridan’s cooperation, the killing might still be unsolved. Sheridan allegedly recorded Amos discussing the killing. Amos, confronted with that evidence, confessed and implicated Woods, Morton said.

“There was a very big risk. It wasn’t something that was taken lightly,” Morton said. “But it worked just as we hoped.”

Amos and Sheridan, offered reduced sentences in exchange for testifying against Woods, are awaiting preliminary hearings.