Real Estate Broker Was Foreclosing on House : Man Who Hired Killers Sentenced to 15 Years

A Northridge man was sentenced Thursday to 15 years to life in prison for hiring two men to kill a real estate broker who was foreclosing on his home.

San Fernando Superior Court Judge Richard A. Lavine imposed the sentence on Manjit Singh Jandu, 41, who was convicted in April of second-degree murder for the 1982 death of Century 21 broker Ronald Colton.

The conviction came at Jandu’s second trial. The first trial ended in a mistrial last summer when a jury split 9 to 3 in favor of acquitting Jandu, the former owner of a Sepulveda luxury-car repair business.

Jandu has been in jail for about 2 1/2 years awaiting trial and sentencing.

Jandu, who was raised in Kenya and London and is a British subject, was one of three men charged with murder after Colton, 45, was found shot to death in the garage of a vacant house in Sylmar in October, 1982. Kelly Lee Morgan, 36, of Granada Hills and Herman Parrish, 33, of Pacoima were convicted of first-degree murder in the shooting.

Borrowed From Broker

Morgan is serving a life sentence without possibility of parole in San Quentin State Prison. Parrish is serving 25 years to life in Folsom State Prison.

According to testimony in Jandu’s trial, Jandu posted his home in Porter Ranch as security when he borrowed $15,000 from Colton in November, 1980. Jandu failed to make several payments and Colton foreclosed on the house and bought it at a foreclosure sale. Jandu filed for bankruptcy in an attempt to protect his interest in the house.

Witnesses testified that Jandu told Colton during an argument over the foreclosure that “you’re not going to live to take my house.”

Colton sued to evict Jandu but was slain eight days before the matter was to go to court. Colton’s widow later settled the foreclosure suit out of court.

Trial testimony indicated that Jandu sent $2,400 to Morgan in Georgia, where Morgan and Parrish fled after the murder.

Denies Involvement

According to a probation report, Jandu continues to deny having any role in Colton’s murder. He said the money he sent to Georgia was for the purchase of a car and auto parts.

But a probation officer, in recommending that Jandu be sentenced to state prison, concluded that Jandu was “the prime mover, the engineer of a rather coldblooded, brutal and virtually senseless killing of another human being. . . . What possessed him to involve himself in this is a moot question, but the fact remains that he did and that he must face the consequences of his behavior.”