Four and a half years after Whittier Officer Keith Boyer was fatally shot while on duty, a jury on Wednesday, Sept. 1, convicted a 30-year-old Los Angeles man for his murder.
After closing arguments Tuesday in the seven-day trial, jury members only needed about two hours to decide Michael Christopher Mejia's fate but didn't make their announcement until just before 9:45 a.m. Wednesday. In his pitch to jurors, defense attorney Paul Cohen did not deny Mejia killed Boyer and an East Los Angeles man but asked that they find him guilty of second-degree murder because he was on drugs at the time of the crimes.
Instead, the jury convicted Mejia on two counts of first-degree murder, a count of attempted murder and carjacking. In addition, the jury also made findings of special circumstances that could lead to a life sentence without the possibility of parole: that one murder victim was a police officer, that there were multiple murders and Mejia attempted to avoid arrest.
Wearing a dark plaid flannel, long-sleeve shirt and his usual black mask, Mejia showed no emotion as the verdict was read.
The crime spree was spread over mere hours on the morning of Feb. 20, 2017. It began with a 5 a.m. confrontation with an East Los Angeles man, Roy Torres, in the converted garage where the victim lived. Torres' girlfriend came home to find Mejia threatening to execute him at the end of a countdown from 10, she testified.
He didn't make it past eight, Torres' girlfriend testified, with Mejia shooting Torres in the head, then demanding the keys to his car, a 2012 Dodge Stratus. Prosecutors said they don't know why Mejia shot Torres.
Several hours later at the intersection of Mar Vista Street and Colima Road in Whittier, that car collided with another driven by Chen Ta Chia, then of La Puente, who was driving his then-girlfriend, now-wife to work, Chia testified. Several police officers were called to the accident scene around 8:30 a.m. Chia said Mejia repeatedly apologized.
When Mejia's car came back as reported stolen, the situation quickly escalated into a shootout, with Mejia fatally shooting Boyer and injuring Hazell, the latter testified in court.
A trash truck driver witnessed the whole thing. Francisco Chavez testified that he saw Boyer go down. "He fell on his knees and then right back."
Officer Tom Osendorf, who was talking to Chia at the time, heard the shots and came running, he testified, eventually firing all 14 bullets from his gun's clip and wounding Mejia. Mejia then surrendered.
A key issue at trial was whether Mejia was an active gang member. Prosecutors said he was a member of the East Los Angeles Winter Gardens gang, citing the many tattoos on his face and body. Experts for the prosecution testified that killing a police officer would elevate Mejia's status in his gang.
But Cohen said there was no evidence his client was an active in his gang.
After Mejia was arrested, he admitted and bragged about the crimes to an undercover officer while in jail — Cohen painted this as bluster coming from a man who knew he'd be going to prison — and also in an interview to Los Angeles County sheriff's detectives. Some of the tapes were played in court.
In February, then-new L.A. County District Attorney George Gascón announced the death penalty is off the table for this and all cases.
Because of social distancing, the jury took all but two seats in the courtroom, while an overflow room accommodated about 30 people, often including Whittier police officers, including Chief Aviv Bar.
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