SIMI VALLEY : Adams Convicted of Murder in ’86 Killing

Nearly seven years after a Woodland Hills man was shot to death in a canyon near Simi Valley, a Ventura County Superior Court jury on Friday convicted a 28-year-old man of second-degree murder in the slaying.

Anthony Adams of Littlerock also was convicted of using a firearm in the killing of Christopher Landry, 21. Landry, a supermarket meat cutter, disappeared in April, 1986.

Adams and another man, Alan Abraham, 30, of Oceanside, were arrested last December, two months after Landry’s skull was found off Black Canyon Road.

Abraham is scheduled for trial in June.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Peter D. Kossoris presented evidence that Landry was killed because he was pressuring Adams to deliver cocaine that Landry’s roommate had paid for. He had urged the jury to return a verdict of first-degree murder.

Defense attorney James M. Epstein of Los Angeles acknowledged that Adams had taken part in the shooting but maintained it was manslaughter because it occurred in the heat of passion.

After less than a day of deliberations, the jurors returned a second-degree murder verdict, a decision that both attorneys said they expected.

Adams faces a sentence of 17 years to life in prison, Epstein said. Judge Lawrence Storch scheduled sentencing for April 26.