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Sentenced: Feb. 23,
2000, age 28
Residence: Carson
Crimes: Robbery, murder
Date of crimes: Various
Location: Carson, Long Beach, San
Bernardino County
Victims: Fernando Herrera; James
Moon, Ramone McKissick
Status: On appeal, not briefed.
The Carson gang member received
the death penalty and two additional life sentences without the
possibility of parole for the mid-1990s crime wave committed with
Millsap.
Loot killed armored car guard
Herrera in November 1995; armored car driver Moon at Curtiss Middle
School in Carson; and Kissick in November 1995.
Another Carson gang member was
sent to prison forever for the crimes. A fourth suspect hung himself in
jail.
Investigators called Loot and his
partner Millsap the most vicious they had ever dealt with, sneaking up
on armored car guards, executing them and taking their money.
When the jury announced its
verdicts, Loot called the panel “Stupid (expletive.)”
During the
case, he assaulted a deputy and was caught with a homemade knife
concealed in his rectum.
2 Sentenced to Death in String of
Fatal Robberies
By Jessica garrison - Los Angeles Times
February 24, 2000
Two Carson-area gang members were sentenced to death Wednesday for a
string of robbery-murders around Southern California in 1995 and 1996.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge J.D.
Smith said Bruce Millsap, 33, and Kendrick Loot, 28, deserved execution
because of the cruelty and callousness they showed during their yearlong
rampage, including shooting armored car drivers without giving them a
chance to hand over the money.
"These are super predators, whose actions were
completely bereft of any understanding or compassion for human life,"
Deputy Dist. Atty. Anthony Myers said after the sentencing hearing. "In
the end, justice will be achieved when . . . they are executed."
Millsap was sentenced to eight death sentences plus
200 years for first-degree murders of eight people. Loot got one death
sentence plus two life sentences for his role in three murders.
Millsap may also face charges that he tried to hire
someone to kill Myers, along with Deputy Dist. Atty. Kevin McCormick and
two witnesses in the case.
Loot faces another murder trial in Riverside County.
Under state law, the men's sentences of death by
lethal injection will automatically be appealed.
Both men were found guilty of the Nov. 30, 1995,
robbery-murder of armored car driver Fernando Herrera in the Queen City
Bank in Long Beach, the Feb. 9, 1996, robbery-murder of armored car
driver James Moon at a Carson school and the Nov. 15, 1995, murder of
Ramone McKissick, who was shot by Millsap as Loot was driving.
Millsap was also convicted last month of five other
murders and on 15 counts of robbery and attempted murder in communities
across Los Angeles, Orange and San Bernardino counties.
Loot also was convicted on several counts of
attempted murder, robbery and attempted robbery.
Loot's attorney, Richard LaPan, said his client
should not have been sentenced to death because he did not actually pull
the trigger to kill any of the victims.
But LaPan also said that his client had said he would
rather die by lethal injection than spend his life in prison.
LaPan said he would appeal his client's case anyway
because Loot might change his mind in a month. "I think his life is
worth saving, and even if I didn't, it's my duty anyway," the attorney
said.
A third man, Richard Colston, a former accomplice who
testified against Loot and Millsap, awaits trial on four murder charges
and could face the death penalty if convicted.
A fourth accomplice, Emanuel Brown, hanged himself in
his jail cell when he learned he would have to stand trial. |
