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View Winners → Top Posts Oct 12, 2021
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A homeless man was sentenced Tuesday to life in prison without the possibility of parole for a shooting that left three men dead and another seriously wounded during a bogus marijuana deal in Palmdale.
Jonathan Paul Misirli, now 38, was convicted Sept. 21 of three counts of first-degree murder and one count each of attempted murder and robbery, according to Deputy District Attorney Ryan Williams.
Jurors also found true the special circumstance allegations of murder during a robbery, murder while lying in wait and multiple murders.
Olukayode Owolabi, 27, and David Hernandez-Licona, 25, both of Los Angeles, and Sean Cowen, 24, of Van Nuys, were killed during the Jan. 16, 2019, attack at Ranch Center Drive and 40th Street West.
Another man survived, but was seriously wounded.
Misirli set up a bogus drug deal and then shot the four victims while they were inside two vehicles, according to the prosecutor.
The defendant took a bag containing about $2,500 in cash and about $10,000 in jewelry that was later pawned, but missed a separate container that had $15,000 in cash, Williams said.
Misirli was arrested by Los Angeles County homicide detectives about 3 1/2 months later as he walked along North Vermont Avenue in the Los Feliz area of Los Angeles, after investigators learned that he had been living in the park area surrounding the Griffith Park Observatory.
He has remained jailed since then.