Local News in Brief : Guilty Pleas in 2 Murders
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A man pleaded guilty Wednesday to murdering two college students who were kidnaped during an auto theft in Westwood in 1985 and shot to death to cover up the crime.
In a plea bargain with the district attorney’s office, Donald Bennett, who had been charged with first-degree murder, was allowed to plead guilty to two counts of second-degree murder.
Bennett, 23, one of three men charged in the case, also pleaded guilty in Superior Court in Santa Monica to an arson count for burning the car of one of the victims to destroy evidence of the slayings.
The South Los Angeles man is scheduled to be sentenced April 8 to 18 years to life in state prison for the murders of UCLA freshman Michelle Ann Boyd, 19, and her boyfriend, Cal State Northridge student Brian Harris, 20.
Deputy Dist. Atty. Harvey Giss said Bennett and the others allegedly abducted Boyd and Harris outside Boyd’s Westwood apartment Sept. 30, 1985, while stealing Harris’ car. Boyd and Harris were driven to a secluded field off Mulholland Drive where they were shot to death.
Giss said the parents of both murder victims approved of Wednesday’s plea bargain.
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