A New Zealand tourist was killed last week outside of Newport Beach’s Fashion Island mall. The man who is accused of being the boss of an armed robbery crew was on probation for stealing a Rolex at gunpoint in Santa Monica.
Los Angeles County prosecutors agreed to a three-year suspended sentence, which kept him out of jail in that case, according to records and statements looked at by The Times.
Leroy Ernest McCrary, 26, is being charged with special circumstances murder, which could lead to the death sentence. He is said to have run over Patricia “Trish” McKay, 68, while trying to rob her on July 2.
Police in Orange County say McCrary and two other men went after Douglas McKay, McKay’s husband and former chair of the Bank of New Zealand, for his expensive watch.
McCrary and the other defendants have not yet made pleas, and their lawyers could not be reached right away for comment.
People are once again interested in the 2022 Rolex theft after the Fashion Island murder.
Lt. Erika Aklufi of the Santa Monica Police Department said that security video in that case showed McCrary putting a gun to a man’s head on Broadway. She said that he and a friend asked the man for his watch.
Police say McCrary’s DNA was also found on the victim’s shirt, which he had grabbed during the robbery.
The Times looked at court records and found that McCrary, who was caught by L.A. police a month later, and Donta Baker were both charged with robbery in the Santa Monica case based on the DNA evidence.
Before that, in 2020, McCrary had been found guilty of making criminal threats, which is a crime.
Court records show that prosecutors agreed to a plea deal that kept him out of jail in the Santa Monica case. McCrary admitted to one count of robbery on April 26, 2023, and was given a three-year term by Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Cathryn Brougham. But Brougham put McCrary on two years of probation instead of giving him the death sentence. She also told him to do 200 hours of volunteer work in the neighborhood.
McCrary was on a suspended sentence for a conviction for having a gun while a criminal in a different case that the LAPD was looking into at the same time.
Before McCrary was sentenced, Brougham told someone to write a probation report. But when The Times asked for the report, courthouse workers couldn’t find it. These kinds of reports generally say how the defendant should be sentenced and whether they should be put on probation.
One of McCrary’s co-defendants admitted to taking stolen goods in return for the robbery charge being dropped. Baker was also given two years of probation. He had three previous felony convictions for grand theft, having a gun while a felon, and escaping from prison.
A few days ago, officials said that the Santa Monica case “had significant problems with proof.” But Los Angeles County prosecutors defended how they handled the case.
A spokesperson for the district attorney’s office said that the case was hampered by the fact that the defendant could not be identified in the camera video. A spokesman said that two witnesses couldn’t name the suspects because the robber was wearing a mask and his face wasn’t shown on the video.
To add to that, she said that authorities couldn’t figure out what the suspect was holding and that the robbery victim’s shirt had never been through a confirmatory DNA test, which made the evidence less reliable.
“Because of these problems, the management team… approved a plea deal that put him on probation with a state prison sentence that was suspended,” the office of the district attorney said in a statement.
Louis Shapiro, a defense lawyer who wasn’t involved in the case, said that in California, a confirming DNA test is needed to show that there is a good chance that the results are accurate. That being said, he said the Santa Monica cops had DNA that made the case stronger than most.
According to Shapiro, “it is very rare to pull DNA in a robbery case” before the trial. “Quite frankly, the office usually gets that kind of confirmation down the road.”
A former prosecutor named Dmitry Gorin said that DNA testing to prove a crime is an important part of getting ready for trial and does not mean that there are problems with the evidence in the case.
Cody Green, head of the Santa Monica Police Officers Association, said that investigators had plenty of time to get a DNA test to confirm the suspect’s identity and that the plea deal was made before any preliminary hearings.
Green said, “This case was as strong as they come.”
People who don’t like L.A. County Dist. Atty. George Gascón says that the way the case was handled is more proof that the country’s biggest prosecutor’s office is poorly run. Nathan Hochman, who is running against Gascón in November, said that the district attorney’s “malpractice appears to have cost another life.”
Orange County officials say McCrary, Malachi Edward Darnell, 18, of Los Angeles, and Jaden Cunningham, 18, of Lancaster went after the McKays in Newport Beach. The couple had just left the high-end Fashion Island mall.
Three people in a white Toyota Camry pulled up next to the McKays. Two thieves in masks jumped out, and one of them put a gun to the New Zealand businessman’s head and demanded his watch, according to the police.
A third person tried to take Trish McKay’s shopping bags but instead pulled her into the street. What was going on with the Camry at that point? To try to save his wife, Doug McKay jumped in front of the car. Police say the driver, who they have named McCrary, ran over the woman and dragged her to her death.
