{"id":84307,"date":"2018-12-04T17:00:15","date_gmt":"2018-12-05T01:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/theavtimes.com\/?p=84307"},"modified":"2018-12-04T17:12:04","modified_gmt":"2018-12-05T01:12:04","slug":"mans-conviction-upheld-in-lancaster-double-murder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/2018\/12\/04\/mans-conviction-upheld-in-lancaster-double-murder\/","title":{"rendered":"Man’s conviction upheld in Lancaster double-murder"},"content":{"rendered":"

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[Picture inset L to R: Convicted double murderer Leo Johnson, Nicky Packard and Michael Sewell.<\/figcaption><\/figure>LOS ANGELES – A state appeals court panel upheld a parolee’s conviction for the murders of two men at a house party in Lancaster nearly 5 1\/2 years ago.<\/p>\n

But the three-justice panel sent the case against Leo Jerome Johnson<\/strong> back to the trial court Monday as the result of a new state law that gives judges discretion to strike certain firearm enhancements.<\/p>\n

Johnson was sentenced in January 2017 to 80 years to life in state prison after being convicted of second-degree murder for the June 23, 2013, shooting deaths of 33-year-old Nicky Packard<\/strong> and 22-year-old Michael Sewell Jr.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Johnson was on parole for armed robbery at the time of the crimes.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors said the victims were at a party throw by a motorcycle club and then went to an after-party at a house on Hanstead Avenue, where they approached Johnson using language from a rival gang. Family members told authorities the men didn’t belong to any gang, but had ties to that world.<\/p>\n

Johnson went back to his house, got a gun and confronted the victims as the after-party was ending, shooting Packard three times and Sewell once as he tried to come to Packard’s defense, according to prosecutors.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors contended that Johnson was a gang member, but a gang enhancement was dismissed by the court before the case went to trial.<\/p>\n

Previous related stories:<\/p>\n

Parolee gets 80 years to life in Lancaster double murder<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

Parolee charged in Lancaster house party double murder<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

$10K reward offered in Lancaster double murder<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Public help sought in double murder investigation<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Men shot and killed after party in Lancaster<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

–<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

LOS ANGELES – A state appeals court panel upheld a parolee’s conviction for the murders of two men at a house party in Lancaster nearly 5 1\/2 years ago. But the three-justice panel sent the case against Leo Jerome Johnson back to the trial court Monday as the result of a new state law that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":70,"featured_media":75511,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[719,10],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84307"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/70"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=84307"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84307\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/75511"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84307"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84307"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84307"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}