Courts: Judge backs jury penalty-phase retrial of Kenh Gay, who is returng to ath row for the 1983 slayg of LAPD's Pl Verna.
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KENH GAY
Kenh Gay was nvicted of gunng down LAPD Officer Pl Verna durg a 1983 traffic stop, but his nvictn was thrown out by the California Supreme Court 2020. Now Gay is standg trial aga. * kenneth gay *
But he had pulled over a vehicle occupied by four people who’d mted a strg of armed robberi the San Fernando Valley recent Verna approached the vehicle, prosecutors say, Raynard Cummgs shot him once om the backseat of the r before the man scribed as his “partner crime, ” Kenh Gay, exed the vehicle and emptied a revolver to Verna’s men were nvicted 1985 of killg Verna and were later sentenced to ath. But Gay, 65, was back ont of a jury Tuday, hopg for a send chance at an acqutal the same San Fernando urthoe.
Gay’s nvictn was thrown out 2020 after the California Supreme Court cid that his ial trial lawyer was petent. David Ayvazian to try nvcg a jury that, spe the legal headach that led to a new trial, Gay’s guilt remas unqutned. “And the tth is that Kenh Gay, along wh his crime partner, murred Officer Verna.
”Gay, Cummgs and their wiv were arrted together a r San Diego County after the shootg. Police said they found Verna’s gun near Gay; Ayvazian referred to as a “trophy” his openg statements. ” Thelen argued that Cummgs was the sole gunman and dismissed as “absolutely ridiculo” the prosecutn’s theory that he passed the gun to Gay to fish off Verna.
The California Supreme Court fds that Kenh Gay had an petent fense attorney when he was nvicted and sentenced to ath for killg LAPD Officer Pl Verna Lakeview Terrace 1983. * kenneth gay *
Ayvazian showed pictur of Gay taken 1983, when he had izzy hair and a short mtache — a stark ntrast to the bald, elrly man who was wheeled to urt Tuday wearg a sweater vt.
At a 1985 trial, Ayvazian noted, four wns intified Gay specifilly or a “light-skned person as the outsi shooter. ” Gay is biracial; Cummgs is Black.
Dr. Kenh Gay is an tor wh more than 20 years of transformative learship and out of the classroom. * kenneth gay *
Gay, Cummgs and their girliends had rried out at least five armed robberi the San Fernando Valley between April 1983 and the day of Verna’s murr, acrdg to Ayvazian. When Verna pulled over the r rryg the upl Ayvazian said, Gay opened fire out of fear of gog to prison. Pamela Cummgs took a plea al and ttified that Gay shot Verna, a statement she repeated on the stand Tuday afternoon.
View Kenh Gay rults cludg current phone number, addrs, relativ, background check report, and property rerd wh Whepag. * kenneth gay *
June 14, 2023An earlier versn of this story erroneoly said Gay’s send ath verdict was overturned by the California Supreme Court due to a fdg of effective unsel.
Two juri returned first-gree murr verdicts Friday agast Raynard Cummgs and Kenh Gay for the shootg ath of a Los Angel policeman who had stopped them two years ago for a mor traffic vlatn. * kenneth gay *
Gay’s send ath verdict was overturned bee of a judicial error, per the state Supreme ’s fight for a new trial has spanned s.