By Malaika Fraley
San Jose Mercury News
Related: Officer dies after pursuit shooting; Colleagues praise Lasater’s leadership
MARTINEZ, Calif. — A jury today convicted two Antioch men of first-degree murder for killing Pittsburg police Officer Larry Lasater as they fled from an armed robbery in 2005.
Alexander Hamilton, 20, and Andrew Moffett, 20, were found guilty of all charges, enhancements and special circumstances surrounding Lasater’s death, including multiple counts of second-degree robbery and killing of an on-duty peace officer.
Hamilton, who fired the fatal gunshot, was also found guilty of attempted murder for shooting at Officers Phil Galer and John Florence, who were not injured, and a special circumstance alleging that he killed Lasater by means of lying in wait on the DeAnza trail.
Moffett’s mother stomped her foot and burst into tears upon hearing the verdict against her son.
“My son didn’t kill nobody. He didn’t kill nobody,” she yelled as she stormed out of the courtroom. Her daughter followed her minutes later, sobbing and shaking as she pushed the courtroom door open in defiance of bailiffs who told no one to leave the room until the hearing was over.
Moffett faces life in prison without the possibility of parole when he is scheduled to be sentenced in Superior Court Judge Laurel Brady’s courtroom on Oct. 12. He was excluded from the possibility of capital punishment because he was 17 years old on the day of the shooting, April 23, 2005.
Hamilton, whose family members did not attend the trial, faces the death penalty. The penalty phase of his trial, at which the same jury will decide his fate, begins Wednesday morning.
Pittsburg police officers and Lasater family members, who filled the courtroom daily, declined to comment on today’s verdict because Hamilton’s trial is ongoing.
Lasater’s mother, Phyllis Loya, thanked prosecutor Harold Jewett, the jury, and everyone she said has supported her family in the two years since her son was killed.
She gave special thanks to the recipients of the 35-year-old officer’s heart and kidney for attending the trial.
Copyright 2007 San Jose Mercury News