Timothy McGhee of the Toonerville gang was convicted of three murders. The judge says he made a sport of 'hunting human game.' He may have been involved in several more killings.
By Jack Leonard
2:33 PM PST, January 9, 2009
A northeast Los Angeles gang leader described by police as a "monster" who boasted in rap lyrics about his hatred of police and his love of killing was sentenced to death Friday for the murder of two rival gang members and the girlfriend of a third.
Timothy Joseph McGhee, 35, sat handcuffed in an orange jail uniform as Superior Court Judge Robert J. Perry said McGhee treated killing "as some kind of perverse sport, as if he was hunting human game."
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"He is a committed killer," Perry said.
Authorities described McGhee as a thrill killer who was among the most feared members of the long-entrenched Toonerville gang, which claims as its turf a largely middle-class area north of Los Feliz Boulevard between San Fernando Road and the Los Angeles River.
A jury in 2007 convicted McGhee of murder in the gang-related shootings of three people between 1997 and 2001. Jurors also found McGhee guilty of the attempted murder of four other people, including two LAPD officers caught in a pre-dawn ambush in Atwater Village as they chased three other Toonerville gang members. Neither officer was wounded.
The same jury deadlocked on whether McGhee should be sentenced to death. But a second jury decided in August that he should be executed.
During the death penalty portion of the case, prosecutors presented evidence linking McGhee with a fourth killing -- the 2001 execution-style shooting of his friend, Christina Duran, who had told police two days earlier about McGhee's involvement in a fatal gang shooting.
Detectives suspected that McGhee was involved in as many as 12 murders, including the September 2000 shooting of a 17-year-old boy who was sketching a picture at the Los Angeles River and a homeless man who might have witnessed the killing.
Prosecutors initially charged McGhee with nine slayings but dropped six murder charges before trial, citing an unreliable witness.
