XPost: oc.general, alt.fan.rush-limbaugh, talk.politics.guns   
   XPost: sac.politics   
   From: abe.lincoln.was@a.fool   
      
   The alleged leader of an armed robbery crew charged with killing a New   
   Zealand tourist last week outside Newport Beach's Fashion Island mall had   
   been placed on probation for stealing a Rolex at gunpoint in Santa Monica.   
      
   He avoided prison time in that case after Los Angeles County prosecutors   
   agreed to a three-year suspended sentence, according to interviews and   
   records reviewed by The Times.   
      
   Leroy Ernest McCrary, 26, now faces a special circumstances murder charge   
   that could carry the death penalty after authorities allege he ran over   
   Patricia "Trish" McKay, 68, during a July 2 robbery attempt.   
      
   Orange County prosecutors say McCrary and two other men targeted McKay's   
   husband, former chair of the Bank of New Zealand Douglas McKay, for his   
   high-end watch.   
      
   McCrary and the other defendants have not yet entered pleas, and their   
   attorneys could not immediately be reached for comment.   
      
   The Fashion Island slaying is renewing interest in the 2022 Rolex theft.   
      
   Santa Monica Police Lt. Erika Aklufi said surveillance video in that case   
   showed McCrary putting a handgun to the head of a man on Broadway. He and an   
   accomplice demanded the man's watch, she said.   
      
   McCrary’s DNA also was recovered from the victim’s shirt, which he'd   
   grabbed   
   during the robbery, police said.   
      
   Prosecutors charged McCrary, who had been arrested by L.A. police a month   
   later, and Donta Baker with robbery in the Santa Monica case based on the   
   DNA evidence, according to court records reviewed by The Times.   
      
   Before that, McCrary had been convicted in a 2020 case of making criminal   
   threats, a felony.   
      
   Prosecutors agreed to a plea deal that spared him prison time in the Santa   
   Monica case, court records show. McCrary pleaded no contest on April 26,   
   2023, to one count of robbery and was sentenced by Los Angeles County   
   Superior Court Judge Cathryn Brougham to three years. But Brougham suspended   
   the sentence and placed McCrary on two years’ probation. She also ordered   
   him to complete 200 hours of community service.   
      
   McCrary’s suspended sentence ran concurrent to another suspended sentence   
   for a conviction for possessing a gun as a felon in a separate case the LAPD   
   investigated.   
      
   Brougham ordered a probation report be completed before McCrary's   
   sentencing. But courthouse clerks could find no report when The Times   
   requested it. Such reports usually give a recommendation on sentencing and   
   the defendant's suitability for probation.   
      
   McCrary's co-defendant pleaded no contest to receiving stolen property in   
   exchange for prosecutors dropping the robbery count. Baker, who had three   
   prior felony convictions for grand theft, possessing a gun as a felon and   
   escaping from custody, was also sentenced to two years’ probation.   
      
   Los Angeles County prosecutors defended their handling of the Santa Monica   
   case, which officials several days ago said "had significant problems with   
   proof."   
      
   A spokesperson in the district attorney's office said an inability to   
   identify the defendant in the surveillance video hampered the case. Two   
   witnesses were unable to identify the suspects, the spokesperson said,   
   noting that the robber's face was not shown in the video because he was   
   wearing a mask.   
      
   She also said that prosecutors were unable to identify the item in the   
   suspect’s hands, and that a confirmatory DNA test was never conducted on the   
   robbery victim's shirt, which called into question its accuracy.   
      
   "As a result of these issues, the management team ... authorized a plea   
   offer that allowed [him] to be placed on probation with a suspended state   
   prison sentence," the district attorney's office said in a statement.   
      
   Legal expert Louis Shapiro, a defense attorney not involved in the case,   
   said to be admissible in California, a confirmatory DNA test is required to   
   show the probability that the results are reliable. Still, he said, the fact   
   that Santa Monica police had DNA made the robbery case stronger than most.   
      
   "It is very rare to pull DNA in a robbery case" before the trial stage,   
   Shapiro said. "Quite frankly, the office usually gets that kind of   
   confirmation down the road."   
      
   Dmitry Gorin, a former prosecutor, said confirmatory DNA testing in a   
   criminal case is a basic part of preparing for trial and does not mean that   
      
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