1982 Crime Rampage : Driver Convicted in Robbery-Murder Case

A jury found a Sepulveda man guilty of first-degree murder, attempted murder and robbery Thursday for his part in a 1982 crime rampage in which two people were murdered and a third was seriously injured in Hollywood and the San Fernando Valley.

After deliberating nine days, the five-man, seven-woman jury could not reach a verdict on a second murder charge and a second robbery charge against Chester Longmire, 26, who admitted driving two other men during the four-hour series of robberies and murders.

San Fernando Superior Court Judge John Major declared a mistrial on those two counts. Deputy Dist. Atty. Fred Stewart said he had not decided whether to retry Longmire on those charges.

Another jury was still deliberating in Major’s courtroom Thursday on murder, attempted murder and robbery charges against J. D. Adams, the primary defendant in the case. He is accused of fatally stabbing 54-year-old Joseph Gulvas on a Hollywood Street and 51-year-old Kenneth Holbrook in the Sylmar motel Holbrook managed. Holbrook’s wife was also stabbed in that attack.

A third defendant, James E. Jennings, pleaded guilty to two counts of first-degree murder and testified against Adams and Longmire.

Longmire, taking the witness stand in an effort to show that he was not involved in the robberies, admitted driving Jennings and Adams around but said he did not know that they were robbing people.

Stewart, however, played the jury a taped confession in which Longmire told investigators that the purpose of the trip was to get money.

Later, jurors said they had no difficulty finding that Longmire had knowingly participated in the motel robbery in which Holbrook was killed but had deliberated unsuccessfully this week in the Gulvas case. Five jurors said they thought there was insufficient evidence.

Longmire was found guilty of Holbrook’s murder, the attempted murder of Holbrook’s wife, three robberies and two counts of being an accessory to a felony.

He was charged under the law that holds a person responsible for a murder that results from any felony in which that person takes part.

Longmire will be sentenced Nov. 4. He faces a maximum of 25 years to life for the murder conviction.