Drifters to be sentenced in murderous Bay Area crime spree - SFGate

Photo: Associated Press

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This undated combination of file photos provided by the Multnomah County Sheriff's Office show, from left, Sean Michael Angold, Lila Scott Allgood, and Morrison Haze Lampley. The three young transients were accused of robbing and killing two people in Northern California. less

Photo: Associated Press

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Morrison Haze Lampley listens to testimony during a preliminary hearing on double homicide charges in Marin County Superior Court in San Rafael, Calif. on Tuesday, Sept. 20, 2016.

Photo: Paul Chinn, The Chronicle

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The Marin County District attorney alleges that Morrison Haze Lampley, 23, was the one who pulled the trigger in the death of Steve Carter. Two others associated with Lampley were also charged.

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Sean Michael Angold, from left, Lila Scott Alligood, and Morrison Haze Lampley face capital murder charges in connection with the slayings of a Canadian backpacker in Golden Gate Park and and a Tantra instructor on a Marin County hiking trail. less

Photo: Associated Press

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Steve Carter, a prominent tantra instructor, was killed while hiking in Marin County on Oct. 5, 2015. This photo was taken in Bhutan during a pilgrimage that he and his wife, Lokita Carter, took to the roots of the teachings of tantric Buddhism. less

Photo: Courtesy / Lokita Carter

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San Francisco police say Audrey Carey, 23, of Quebec, Canada, was found dead in Golden Gate Park after the first day of the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival on Friday, Oct. 2, 2015.

Photo: Courtesy, SFPD

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Photo: Gofundme.com

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In this Tuesday, Oct. 6, 2015 photo, Marin County Sheriff's Office personnel investigate a homicide near the top of White's Hill on Old Railroad Grade near Fairfax, Calif. A tantra teacher who made DVDs on yoga for lovers and taught classes at a clothing-optional retreat was found shot to death on a hiking trail in Northern California, still holding onto the leash of his wounded dog, authorities said. Detectives are looking for three people of interest in the killing of Steve Carter, 67 less

Photo: Robert Tong, Associated Press

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A Search and rescue teams scours the area for a weapon using a search dogs near the Old Railroad Grade Trail on Tues. October 6, 2015, in Fairfax, Calif., where the body of Steve Carter, 67, was discovered shortly after 6 p.m. by a hiker in the Loma Alta Open Space Preserve north of Fairfax and off Sir Francis Drake Boulevard. less

Photo: Michael Macor, The Chronicle

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Investigators found the killers using the GPS location of Steve Carter's 2003 Volkswagen Jetta station wagon. Carter, who was found shot to death on a hiking trail in the Loma Alta Open Space Preserve south of Fairfax in Marin County. less

Photo: Marin County Sheriff's Office

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Three suspects, identified by the Marin County Sheriff's Office as Morrison Haze Lampley, 23, left, Sean Michael Angold, 24, center, Lila Scott Allgood, 18, right, were arrested Wednesday in Oregon on suspicion of murdering a Tantric massage therapist on a Marin County hiking trail.

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Photo: Marin Sheriff's Dept.

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Authorities released a photo of a third "person of interest" in the shooting death of Steve Carter, a prominent therapist and teacher who was killed on a Marin County hiking trail on Monday, Oct. 5, 2015.

Photo: Courtesy, Marin County Sheriff

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Photo: Courtesy, Marin County Sheriff

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Photos of two of the suspects in murder of hiker Steve Carter are shown to media after press conference at Marin County Sheriff's Office in San Rafael, Calif., on Wednesday, October 7, 2015.

Photo: Scott Strazzante, The Chronicle

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Multnomah County Sheriff's Office photos shows Sean Michael Angold, 24, one of three suspects who were arrested Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2015, in Portland, Ore., in the killing of Steve Carter, a tantra yoga teacher, on a hiking trail in Marin County, Calif.

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Julio Escobar of the Archdiocese of San Francisco, left and Brother Justin Liu of St. Anne of the Sunset, right say prayers while Father Daniel Nascimento tosses holy water near the site of the death of Audrey Carey in Golden Gate Park. October 13, 2015 less

Photo: Franchon Smith, The Chronicle

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San Francisco police commander Toney Chaplin speaks to members of the media during a news conference, Friday, Oct. 9, 2015, at the Hall of Justice in San Francisco, Calif. Chaplin answered questions from the media about the slaying of 23-year-old Canadian backpacker Audrey Carey, who was found dead in Golden Gate Park from a gunshot wound and blunt-force trauma. Three suspects are arrested in connection with the homicide. less

Photo: Santiago Mejia, Special To The Chronicle

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San Francisco police spokesman Officer Albie Esparza speaks to the media during a news conference, Friday, Oct. 9, 2015, at the police department headquarters in San Francisco, Calif. S.F. police answered questions about the slaying of 23-year-old Canadian backpacker Audrey Carey, who was found dead in Golden Gate Park from a gunshot wound and blunt-force trauma. Three suspects are arrested in connection with the homicide. less

Photo: Santiago Mejia, Special To The Chronicle

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Officer Wu, with U.S. Parks Police cools down his police dog "Choco" after search of the area at the trailhead of the Old Railroad Trail on Tues. October 6, 2015, in Fairfax, Calif., near where the body of Steve Carter, 67, was discovered shortly after 6 p.m. by a hiker in the Loma Alta Open Space Preserve north of Fairfax and off Sir Francis Drake Boulevard. less

Photo: Michael Macor, The Chronicle

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A search and rescue team from Marin County searches the area for a possible weapon near the Old Railroad Grade Trail on Tues. October 6, 2015, in Fairfax, Calif., nearby where the body of Steve Carter, 67, was discovered shortly after 6 p.m. by a hiker in the Loma Alta Open Space Preserve north of Fairfax and off Sir Francis Drake Boulevard. less

Photo: Michael Macor, The Chronicle

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Marin Co. Sheriff Lt. Doug Pittman at the the trailhead of the Old Railroad Trail on Tues. October 6, 2015, in Fairfax, Calif., near where the body of Steve Carter, 67, was discovered shortly after 6 p.m. by a hiker in the Loma Alta Open Space Preserve north of Fairfax and off Sir Francis Drake Boulevard. less

Photo: Michael Macor, The Chronicle

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Three drifters accused of carrying out the cold-blooded killings of a backpacker in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park and a hiker in Marin County are set to be sentenced Tuesday morning, closing a case that stunned the Bay Area with its brutality and senselessness.

Under a plea deal endorsed by the victims’ families, Morrison Haze Lampley, 24, is expected to be sentenced to 100 years to life in prison for murdering Audrey Carey, a 23-year-old Canadian backpacker, and Steven Carter, a 67-year-old tantric yoga instructor, during a crime spree in 2015, said the Marin County district attorney’s office.

Lampley’s girlfriend, 19-year-old Lila Scott Alligood, who also pleaded guilty to two counts of first-degree murder, is expected to be sentenced to 50 years to life in state prison. Under California’s youthful offender program, which grants earlier parole eligibility for any prisoner who was under 23 at the time of the offense, she will be eligible for parole in 25 years.

A third defendant, Sean Michael Angold, 25, pleaded guilty last May to one count of second-degree murder in connection with Carter’s slaying, and is expected to be sentenced to 15 years to life in prison.

Angold cut a deal with prosecutors to testify against the other two and described a savage, drug-addled crime spree that unfolded over a few days in October 2015. Angold, an old acquaintance of Lampley’s, said during a preliminary hearing that he had planned to join the couple as they traveled to Oregon with dreams of starting a pot farm.

The violence began when the trio took a .40-caliber Smith & Wesson handgun from an unlocked truck near Coit Tower in San Francisco. Soon, they crossed paths with Carey, who was on her first solo backpacking trip, near one of the windmills at the edge of Golden Gate Park near Ocean Beach.

The drifters befriended Carey, but planned to rob her because “she was foreign and possibly had money,” Angold said. But he said the robbery went awry as they sat in the thick brush of Golden Gate Park.

Carey had just thanked the trio for being her friends, according to testimony, when Alligood tackled her and Lampley held the stolen gun to her head. Angold, who had been trying to tie up Carey’s legs, heard a pop, and he said Lampley told him, “She’s dead, dude. Don’t worry about it.” Alligood had been straddling Carey’s chest.

Angold said he separated from the couple after Carey’s slaying, but they regrouped two days later, heading into Marin County on their journey north to Oregon. While they had initially intended to only rob Carey, Angold said, they targeted Carter for death because they wanted his station wagon.

Alligood was the one who chose Carter, Angold said, and they followed him as he walked his Doberman pinscher, Coco, down a popular trail northwest of Fairfax.

Lampley shot him and his dog. The trio then rifled through Carter’s pockets for his keys and wallet, which had been pierced by a bullet, and used the ripped, bloody cash to buy gas and cigarettes in Point Reyes, according to court testimony.

All three were arrested two days after Carter’s death outside a Portland, Ore., soup kitchen after authorities tracked the station wagon’s GPS device.

Though investigators and Angold did not testify in depth about the shooting of Carter’s dog during the preliminary hearing, Carter’s widow, Lokita Carter, wrote on her blog that investigators told her that following the shooting of her husband, “Lampley put the gun to Coco’s right eye and pulled the trigger.”

Prosecutors originally charged Lampley and Alligood with animal cruelty, but Judge Kelly Vieira Simmons ruled there was insufficient evidence to support a charge of animal cruelty against Alligood. In the plea deal, the animal cruelty charge against Lampley was dropped.

“Lampley’s conviction papers will not show that he is guilty of animal cruelty — which really, he is — so I want to advocate for my dog who cannot speak for herself,” Lokita Carter wrote. “The bullet traveled down through her skull and came out at the back of her left jawbone, shattering part of it. Coco was severely injured. When the first responders arrived, Coco was quietly, calmly standing by Steve’s side, still leashed, bleeding profusely. She was not barking, crying or whimpering. She was not lying down.”

Lokita Carter has written in depth about the grief she suffered from her husband’s death, and is expected to make a statement at the sentencing Tuesday. Prior to the killing, she said, the couple had moved to Costa Rica to build their dream home when she was diagnosed with breast cancer. They were living in Marin County with friends while she underwent treatment when Steve Carter was killed.

“We can complete this part of our lives, but whatever their punishment is or could have been, it is never going to bring Steve and Audrey back,” she wrote. “We have to live with the excruciating and traumatizing ramifications of their crimes until our very last breath.”

Vivian Ho is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: vho@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @VivianHo

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