Gang member and convicted murderer Timothy McGhee laughs during sentancing as his attorney Franklin Peters Jr. listens to the judge in Los Angeles Friday. McGhee was sentanced to death after mudering three people. (Photo by Wally Skalij/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
Los Angeles, California – The California Supreme Court on Thursday overturned the murder convictions and death sentence of Timothy McGhee, a former Atwater Village gang leader once on the U.S. Marshals’ most-wanted list, citing juror misconduct during his 2007 trial.
McGhee, convicted of three murders and four attempted murders, has been incarcerated at Kern Valley State Prison. The state’s highest court ruled that the trial judge improperly dismissed a juror who had questioned the credibility of prosecution witnesses and expressed anti-police bias during deliberations. The court concluded there was no “demonstrable reality” that the juror was unable to perform their duties, calling the dismissal an “abuse of discretion.”
The decision paves the way for a new trial, more than two decades after the violent crime spree that shook the Los Angeles neighborhoods of Atwater Village and Los Feliz. Between 1997 and 2001, police said McGhee ran the Toonerville gang like a paramilitary operation, using brutal tactics to control the local drug trade.
McGhee was linked to a series of chilling crimes, including the 2000 murder of a 17-year-old boy drawing near the LA River, and the immediate killing of a homeless man who may have witnessed the act. Authorities also tied him to the murder of a teen who shared his nickname, and a deadly shooting that left a pregnant woman brain-damaged but her baby alive.
In 2001, LAPD detectives accused McGhee of murdering three people at a home in Atwater Village, believing a woman had informed police about drug activity.
“Basically, he’s a monster,” former LAPD Det. Andy Teague said at the time.
The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office is reviewing the court’s decision and will soon determine whether to retry the case.
