Man Gets 17 Years to Life in Slaying of Basketball Player

A former Los Angeles city trash collector pleaded guilty Friday to second-degree murder for shooting Princeton University basketball player Lawrence Raphael in the head in 1982 while the young man sat in a car in his girlfriend’s Hancock Park driveway.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Jean E. Matusinka immediately sentenced Ozell (Junebug) Johnson, 31, to 17 years to life in state prison. Although Johnson could be eligible for parole after serving 8 1/2 years, Deputy Dist. Atty. Steven M. Barshop said he expected him to remain incarcerated for at least 20 years.

During a brief court appearance, Johnson, who was already serving a prison sentence for possession of PCP for sale, nodded when the prosecutor asked if he understood he might spend the rest of his life behind bars.

In a related development, Barshop said Kenneth Solomon, the driver of the getaway car, was released from jail Friday in accordance with a plea bargain struck last March. Under that arrangement, Solomon, 29, pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and was promised his freedom if he testified truthfully against Johnson.

Johnson’s attorney, Gerald L. Chaleff, said Solomon’s plea was critical to Friday’s resolution. “Until they gave the deal to Solomon they didn’t have a good case,” he said.

The prospect of Solomon’s testimony “put (Johnson) in the position of having a possibility of being convicted, and if he was convicted he could possibly get the death penalty,” Chaleff said.

“Mr. Johnson reevaluated the alternatives and felt this was a reasonable solution.”

The prosecutor said he agreed to the deal because of the risk that a jury might not have found Solomon credible. He noted that in Solomon’s first trial, which ended in a mistrial in June, 1985, Solomon disputed the authenticity of a taped confession. In his second trial, he admitted that the voice on the tape was his and entered his guilty plea.

“It certainly would have been better if Solomon hadn’t been tried twice,” Barshop said. “Solomon initially made the statement that it was not his voice on the tape. . . . Then the second time . . . he gets on the stand and says, ‘I am going to testify but the only reason is to save my butt.’ ”

Defending the deal offered to Solomon, the prosecutor pointed out that Solomon, a former clerk for the Internal Revenue Service, had no previous record and has served three years for his involvement in the killing. “Sometimes you have to do things in order to get the most serious participant. That’s just the way it is.”

Solomon and Johnson were arrested in February, 1984, for the Aug. 18, 1982, slaying of Raphael, 19, who was returning with his girlfriend to her Hancock Park home after having gone out for ice cream.

Raphael, a star player for Fairfax High School before he entered Princeton, was shot in the head at point-blank range with a handgun. The assailant pulled him out of the car and rummaged through his pockets before fleeing, authorities said.

The prosecutor said Raphael’s parents, who were not in court Friday, had agreed to the negotiated plea with Johnson.

“They don’t love it but they understand the realities of the situation,” Barshop said.