Man Gets Life for Fatal Rampage

A South-Central Los Angeles youth who went on a five-day crime rampage that included killing an Orange County contractor at a fast-food restaurant was sentenced Tuesday to life in prison without the possibility of parole, authorities said.

Lawrence Elliot Cottle, 18, once a star quarterback at Washington High School, had not had any felony convictions.

Cottle was found guilty Jan. 13 of eight counts of murder, robbery, attempted robbery, assault and carjacking after a series of crimes that started Nov. 14, 1996, and ended five days later when the teenager’s stolen vehicle ran into a Gardena police car, said Deputy Dist. Atty. Barbara Block, who prosecuted the case.

Cottle’s attorney, Joan Green, could not be reached for comment.

The violent rampage began when Cottle, whom authorities said was a member of the Raymond Avenue Crips gang, approached Alan Peterson Sr., 62, of Laguna Hills, just after Peterson bought lunch at a Jack-in-the-Box restaurant in Carson. In what appeared to be a botched attempt to carjack Peterson’s Lexus, Cottle shot him in the chest. Peterson died 30 minutes later at a hospital.

At the sentencing in Compton Superior Court, Peterson’s wife, son and daughter told Cottle how Peterson’s death left an enormous void in their lives.

Peterson’s wife, Carole, a special-education teacher, stood before Judge John Cheroske and looked toward the defendant and his mother, Geraldine Amos.

In soft but cutting words, she asked Cottle what he would do if someone shot his mother and heartlessly walked away. This murder, she told him, devastated not only her family, but Cottle’s family, who must spend the rest of their lives knowing he is a murderer.

Laura Peterson, 30, told the defendant that her father would never be able to walk her down the wedding aisle or bounce his grandchildren on his knee.

Alan Peterson Jr., 32, who undertook a massive billboard campaign offering a reward for his father’s killer, said that most of his thoughts were inappropriate for a courtroom.

For the last 15 months, day-to-day living for the Petersons has been exhausting, the son said, but he hopes that will change now that the trial is over.

“We know that my father would want us, at this point, to carry on with our own life missions and take what he gave us and be better than he was,” the victim’s son said after the proceedings ended. “And I think that is what we are going to do.

“But what has been perplexing to me is the cavalierness of this kid,” he continued. “Why is it so glamorous to engage in gang activity? I am thinking that Lawrence Cottle will spend the rest of his life sleeping in a cage with other male criminals. Why is this more glamorous than acting like a good man?”

Cottle was ordered by a Compton juvenile judge last year to be tried as an adult for the crimes he committed when he was 16. If he had been tried and convicted as a juvenile, he could have been released from the California Youth Authority by age 25.

After killing Peterson on Nov. 14, Cottle went to Culver City the next morning and at gunpoint robbed Hector Fregosa, a social worker, near a bank, authorities said. Less than an hour later, authorities said, Cottle robbed Emma Garcia at Nix Check Cashing in Inglewood, pointing a gun at her 4-year-old daughter’s head while Garcia scrambled to empty her purse.

The evening of Nov. 18, Cottle robbed and stole a car from Concepcion Juarez in Gardena, authorities said. Two hours later, police said, he crashed into a Gardena police car.