Three young murderers were sentenced in Marin Superior Court on Tuesday after listening to their collateral victims condemn them as “brain-dead addicts” and “monsters.”
The trio received a collective 165 years to life for a 2015 crime spree that left two people dead in Fairfax and San Francisco.
Morrison Lampley, 24, the gunman, received 100 years to life. His girlfriend, 19-year-old Lila Alligood, received 50 years to life. Their accomplice and eventual turncoat, Sean Angold, got 15 years to life.
All three killers offered statements of remorse in the packed courtroom, partly occupied by relatives of murder victims Steve Carter and Audrey Carey.
“I’m truly sorry — I’m so sorry for what I did and the decisions I made,” Alligood said in a trembling voice. “I’m so, so ashamed.”
The sentencing concluded a case that began on Oct. 3, 2015, when Carey was found dead in Golden Gate Park. She was a 23-year-old tourist from Quebec, Canada.
Two days later, Carter, a 67-year-old resident of San Geronimo, was shot to death while walking his dog along Old Railroad Grade Fire Road on White’s Hill. The dog, Coco, survived a gunshot wound to the head but lost an eye.
The killers stole Carter’s car. Two days later, they were arrested in Portland with the car, Carey’s stolen property and the gun used in the homicides.
Angold, who had stolen the gun from a car in San Francisco, took a plea deal for second-degree murder and agreed to testify for the prosecution. At the preliminary hearing, he testified that he met Lampley and Alligood in late September and they decided to go to Oregon to farm marijuana.
The trio befriended Carey while she was visiting Golden Gate Park. They decided to rob her for money and supplies, and Lampley shot her in the head while Alligood held her down, Angold said.
Then the defendants wandered into Marin and eventually Fairfax, where they decided to rob someone of a car for their voyage north. They ambushed Carter after seeing him park his car at a turnout to walk his dog.
Lampley and Alligood accepted plea offers in February, admitting to two counts of first-degree murder. Numerous other charges, including robbery and animal cruelty, were dismissed in the arrangement.
‘HORROR MOVIE’
The killers were sentenced by Judge Kelly Simmons during a wrenching hearing that included statements from the bereaved. The courtroom was lined with deputies and detectives with the Marin County Sheriff’s Office, which handled a large part of the investigation.
Steve Carter’s widow, Lokita, who was fighting breast cancer and crushing medical bills when she lost her husband, described the ensuing period as a 562-day nightmare in which she often wished for death.
Calling the defendants “evil, apparently brain-dead addicts,” she said she would be walking freely out of court that day, while they would be going to “hell on earth” in state prison.
“This here is the beginning of your very own horror movie that’s not going to end any time soon,” Carter said.
Emily Hansen, Carter’s daughter, said she will forever be haunted by unanswerable questions, such as her father’s last thoughts and his level of suffering. She also said the murders cost her a sense of trust and ease in going about her daily life.
“Anyone with dirty clothes and dirty hair is suspect,” she said.
‘EVIL EXISTS’
Isabelle Tremblay, the mother of Audrey Carey, sent a statement to be read in court. She said her daughter initially wanted to travel to Europe, which made Tremblay uneasy. So when her daughter chose San Francisco instead, Tremblay was relieved.
“She wanted to meet nice people and find new things,” Tremblay said. “We both thought that the United States was a safe country.”
“My life is devoid of meaning without my daughter by my side,” she added. “She trusted you, three unspeakably cruel monsters. You are the proof that evil exists.”
Lampley’s lead attorney, Chief Deputy Public Defender David Brown, read a brief statement from Lampley wishing peace for the victims’ families.
“I know that what I’ve done has devastated so many,” he said.
Brown offered some biographical information about Lampley while stressing it was not intended as an excuse. He said Lampley had suffered “neglect, abuse, homelessness and mental illness” since childhood, including being accidentally dosed with LSD as a toddler.
Angold’s lawyer, Terrence Bennett, read a statement on his client’s behalf. Angold said “I deeply regret my participation” in the crimes and “I will spend the rest of my life thinking about the acts that I have done.”
Bennett urged the judge to see that Angold is placed in protective custody because of his “snitch jacket,” or reputation as a prosecution witness. Similarly, he asked the judge to bar the media from taking Angold’s picture in court, even though his image has been widely published previously.
“It’s important that I not read in the paper that my client has been shanked in prison,” Bennett said.
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