Son, 2 Others Get Lengthy Terms in Murder-for-Hire : Courts: Two defendants who took part in the paid killing of a Sylmar man are angered by Raymond Godlewski Jr.’s testimony and his softer sentence.

Three men accused of murdering a Sylmar man for an inheritance were sentenced to long prison terms Friday, amid heavy security imposed to protect the dead man’s son from the two men he hired to carry out the murder.

Raymond Godlewski Jr., 24, of Montrose, was sentenced by San Fernando Superior Court Judge Ronald S. Coen to 21 years to life in prison for paying Gene Flack, 24, of Palmdale $5,000 to kill Raymond Godlewski Sr., who was shot once in the head on July 4, 1989.

Flack was sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole, while Michael Brown, 22, who drove the car in which Flack made his escape after the murder, was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison.

All three defendants were shackled during the hearing and five bailiffs stood guard in the courtroom. Deputy Dist. Atty. Craig R. Richman said the extra security precautions were taken because Flack and Brown were angry at Godlewski for testifying against them. They also were upset that he was convicted of second-degree murder and received a lighter sentence while they were convicted of first-degree murder.

Prosecutors contended that Godlewski killed his father to obtain a $280,000 inheritance.

Before Coen pronounced the sentences, friends of the senior Godlewski criticized the jury for convicting the younger Godlewski of the lesser offense, calling it “a grave miscarriage of justice.”

Shirley Young, who had known the victim since high school, said the jury had done a “terrible injustice” by not convicting the younger Godlewski of first-degree murder.

“It is ludicrous. How can you hire a hit man to kill your own father and have that not be premeditated,” she said.

During the trial, Godlewski’s public defender argued that the younger Godlewski had suffered a lifetime of abuse and feared for his life because of his father’s violence.

But Young said those accusations were unfounded and told the court that most of the abuse the younger Godlewski endured came from his stepmother.

“If anything, he chose to turn his back on the abuse so as not to make waves with his wife,” Young said of the father. She said the elder Godlewski adored his son and would have been appalled to know that he was responsible for the murder.

Larry Young, also a close friend of the victim, called Flack “a psychotic killer, a cheap killer that doesn’t even require a cause to kill.”

“To him a human life is worth just a couple of thousand dollars,” he said.

Flack’s and Brown’s attorneys both said they plan to appeal their clients’ convictions.