Murderpedia has thousands of hours of work behind it. To keep creating
new content, we kindly appreciate any donation you can give to help
the Murderpedia project stay alive. We have many
plans and enthusiasm
to keep expanding and making Murderpedia a better site, but we really
need your help for this. Thank you very much in advance.
Eric Royce
LEONARD
A.K.A.: "Thrill
Killer"
Classification: Murderer
Characteristics:
Robberies
Number of victims: 6
Date of murders: February 12/19, 1991
Date
of arrest:June 6,
1991
Date of birth: 1969
Victims profile: Zaid
Obeid and Stephen Anderson (employees of a convenience store),
and Thor Johnson (convenience store customer) / Sarah
Crook, Kyle Reynolds and Andrea Coldangelo (Pizza joint
employees)
On February 19, 1991,
Eric Royce Leonard killed three people in a Round Table Pizza on Watt
Avenue, and got the nickname of "pizza thrill killer." One week earlier,
Leonard killed 3 people at a Quik Stop on Auburn Boulevard, taking only
beef jerky from the crime scene. He says "the day after the Round Table
Pizza killings, he came into the writing center at American River
College and did some work. The police later confiscated his folder. The
Writing Center gave him a no-credit."
Eric Royce Leonard
On February 12, 1991, a lone gunman entered a Quik Stop market on Auburn
Boulevard and shot two employees and a customer from close range. The
shootings appeared to be a robbery, although nothing was taken except a
tin of beef jerky and a few other items.
A week later, three workers in a Watt Avenue pizza parlor were killed in
a similar manner. Authorities believed that the slayings were done for
kicks. The unknown killer was quickly dubbed the “thrill killer” by the
media, as an outburst of coverage followed the developments.
A massive manhunt ensued, and may have deterred the killer from making
further attacks. But many months passed before police found a troubled
young man named Eric Royce Leonard, who then became the 27th Sacramento
area resident waiting on death row.
Victims: Zaid Obeid, Stephen Anderson (employees of a convenience
store), Thor Johnson (convenience store customer?), Sarah Crook, Kyle
Reynolds, Andrea Coldangelo (Pizza joint employees).
Crimes occured 2-12-1991 and 2-19-1991.
.25 cal handgun was murder weapon.
Supreme Court
Upholds Death Sentence of Man Who Blurted ‘I Am Guilty’
By Kenneth Ofgang -
Metnews.com
Friday, May 18, 2007
A Sacramento man who drew widespread
headlines when he raised his hand at a pretrial hearing and blurted out
“I am guilty” was properly sentenced to death for six murders, the state
Supreme Court ruled yesterday.
In a unanimous decision, the justices
rejected the contention that Sacramento Superior Court Judge Thomas J.
Cecil should not have allowed jurors at Eric Royce Leonard’s trial to
hear about his incriminating comment at the hearing on his motion for
change of venue, which was denied.
Justice Joyce L. Kennard, writing for
the court, said that Leonard’s comment was not an “offer to plead guilty,”
which would make it inadmissible under Evidence Code Sec. 1153.
“We agree with
the trial court that defendant’s in-court outburst declaring
that he was guilty was not a ‘bona fide offer to plead guilty’...but
simply an ‘unsolicited admission’...that was not made
inadmissible by Evidence Code section 1153,” the justice wrote.
“Defendant did not say he wanted to enter a plea of guilty; that
is, to formally admit that he had committed each of the charged
crimes. Rather, he said he was guilty, without
explaining what he was guilty of. No plea negotiations were
underway, and to exclude statements of this kind would not
encourage the settlement of criminal cases.”
Guilty
Verdict
The jury convicted Leonard of
the six murders with which he was charged, which took place
during two robberies one week apart in February 1991.
The first robbery, in which
three people were killed, took place at a Quik Stop convenience
market, the second, resulting in three more deaths, at a Round
Table Pizza restaurant.
Media coverage suggested that
the crimes had been committed by a “thrill killer” rather than
for money, although evidence at trial suggested that currency
had been taken in both robberies and that Leonard wasn’t making
enough money to pay his living expenses and had resorted to bad-check-writing
in the period leading up to the crimes.
Leonard was arrested months
later, following an investigation that included interviews with
hundreds of people. Police first became interested in Leonard
when they saw him walking near the Quik Stop two days after the
Round Table robberies.
Police Interviews
A detective
testified at trial that Leonard admitted having been near the
scenes of both killings on the nights in question, but denied
any involvement. The officer said he thought at the time that
Leonard—who has an IQ of less than 100 and has suffered from
epilepsy nearly all his life—was too timid and mentally
disoriented to be a likely suspect in the murders.
The police said they took
further interest, however, after interviewing several others who
saw a man wearing a trench coat near the murder scenes on the
nights in question. Four of those witnesses saw a photograph of
Leonard, who was wearing a trench coat the first time the police
spoke to him, and said he appeared to be the man they saw.
After interviewing Leonard
again, they went to his father’s house and obtained a .25-caliber
Baretta pistol, which ballistics tests showed to be the murder
weapon. His father, one of the detectives testified, told the
detective that Leonard had confessed, although the father denied
at trial that he had ever made such a statement.
In challenging the death
sentence on appeal, Leonard’s court-appointed attorney argued
that it would constitute cruel and unusual punishment to execute
a young man—he was 21 at the time of the murders—who is
epileptic and developmentally disabled. But Kennard, writing for
the high court, said there were sufficient aggravating
circumstances to support the judge and jury’s decision.
“We acknowledge the
seriousness of defendant’s disabilities, but nonetheless
defendant committed two robberies during which he murdered six
people by shooting them in the head, and to ensure the deaths of
two of his victims he fired at close range, holding the gun less
than two inches from their heads,” the jurist wrote. “On these
facts, the death sentence is not grossly disproportionate to
defendant’s culpability.”
The
court yesterday also upheld another death sentence, from San
Bernardino County.
Joseph Lloyd
Cook was sentenced to death for murdering an octogenarian Joshua
Tree couple while burglarizing their home in 1992. Cook, who had
worked for the victims, was implicated after he sold some of the
victims’ property to his brother and was seen standing near
their car, which was driven away after they were murdered.
Cook’s palm print was found
on the vehicle, and blood splatter consistent with that of one
of the victims was found on his shoe.
Justice Ming Chin, writing
for the high court, rejected a number of challenges to the
verdict and sentence, including a claim that identification of
the defendant as the man standing near the victims’ vehicle
should have been suppressed because the witnesses picked him out
of a lineup at which he was not represented by counsel.
The U.S. Supreme Court, Chin
explained, has ruled that there is no right to counsel at a
lineup held prior to the filing of formal charges. The fact that
Cook had already been in custody for a week, based on a parole
hold tied to his arrest, does not change the constitutional
analysis, the justice said.
Chin acknowledged that under
the California Constitution, there is a right to counsel at a
pre-indictment lineup. The justice explained, however, that
under Proposition 8, evidence cannot be excluded solely on the
ground that it was obtained in violation of state law.
The
cases are People v. Leonard, 07 S.O.S. 2437, and
People v. Cook, 07 S.O.S. 2458.
Suspect Arrested in 'Thrill Killings' of 6
Los Angeles Times
June 07, 1991
SACRAMENTO — A man described by authorities as a withdrawn loner
was arrested Thursday in connection with the killings of six
people, who were gunned down at close range at a local
convenience store and a pizza parlor.
Sacramento County Sheriff Glen Craig said
Eric Royce Leonard, 22, who lives near both shooting scenes, was
arrested at his apartment about 9 p.m. after ballistics experts
identified a .25-caliber pistol owned by his father as the
weapon used in all six of the killings.
Earlier Thursday, investigators interviewed
the suspect's father, who turned over the pistol.
"The father said he had known for a while
that something was not really right," Sheriff's Sgt. Lena
Derheim said in a telephone interview.
"His reaction was very docile, very staid,
very stoic," Craig said of Leonard's demeanor. He described the
suspect as a loner.
"He was the kind of person who wouldn't stand
out in a crowd. He would be on the fringes of the crowd," added
Sheriff's Lt. Ray Biondi.
Authorities said they had no motive. Earlier
they had described the slayer they were seeking as a "thrill
killer," who apparently murdered for personal satisfaction,
because little cash was taken in the incidents.
"The cash registers were not cleaned out. It
was almost like it was an afterthought," Derheim said.
Leonard had been questioned shortly after the
first killings Feb. 12 in a convenience store half a block from
his apartment north of downtown, Derheim said.
"He was not a super strong suspect, but he
was one of those names that was kept on the back burner," the
sergeant said. "He had been identified as being seen near the
store, and he didn't have an alibi for where he was when the
shooting occurred."
"Someone matching Leonard's description had
been seen dressed in a trench coat at both crimes scenes,"
Derheim added.
The slayings occurred on Tuesday evenings,
with three people shot to death at the suburban Quik Stop
convenience store and, a week later, Feb. 19, three more were
slain at a nearby Roundtable Pizza parlor.
Investigators interviewed Leonard again on
Feb. 25, a Monday, the day before authorities feared additional
killings might take place. Craig noted that there were no more "thrill
killings."
SEX:
M RACE: W TYPE: T MOTIVE: PC-nonspecific
MO:
Shot victims/witnesses in petty robberies.
Convicted "Thrill Killer" Eric Royce
Leonard is seen during a court appearance on Feb. 29, 1992. Leonard was
convicted of the execution-style killing of six people in a Sacramento
convenience store and at a pizza parlor on 1999. He was sentenced to
death.
Eric Royce Leonard, the "Thrill Killer"
looks over the jury as the verdict is read in Sacramento Superior Court
on Nov. 20, 1995. Leonard was convicted of execution-style killing of
six people in a Sacramento convenience store and at a pizza parlor in
1999.
Paula Thomas, the mother of Eric Royce
Leonard, the "Thrill Killer" is consoled after the verdict of her son
was read in Sacramento Superior Court
on Nov. 20, 1995.
