Second man convicted of 1991 murder denied resentencing

A second man convicted in a 1991 home invasion murder has been denied resentencing. Lester Laramount Polk was charged with multiple offenses, including murder, and was eligible for the death penalty.

Polk waved his right to a jury trial so that they would not seek the death penalty. He was found guilty of murder, three special circumstances, two counts of robbery, two counts of assault, one count of sexual penetration by force, one count of burglary and one count of conspiracy. He was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole for the murder charge.

In 2018, the definition of murder was changed in a new California law. It allowed some people convicted of murder relief if their convictions were not within the new definition. Under the law, a defendant cannot be convicted of felony murder unless they were the actual killer or a major participant and acted with reckless indifference to human life.

The petition was denied because Judge Carrie Panetta ruled that Polk was a major participant and acted with reckless indifference to human life.

In June of 1991, John Lewis Drayton, Eugene Ballance, Annette Durr, Lester Polk and Patrick Richardson planned a home robbery. The four men went into the home at 2 a.m., and Drayton, Polk and Richardson were armed.

Polk and Richardson went into the master bedroom and found the husband and wife homeowners, and Polk announced that this was a robbery. Richardson put their guns to the couple’s heads and demanded that they say where their safe was.

When the couple told them repeatedly that there was no safe, Drayton and Richardson found their 17-year-old daughter in her bedroom and led her by gunpoint to the master bedroom. When the robbers demanded to know the location of the safe again, Drayton pinned the wife on the floor with his foot. He put his gun to her back and told her not to move.

They told the robbers again there was no safe, and at that point Polk told the 17-year-old to undress, and he sexually assaulted her with his shotgun. He said he would make the parents watch as he raped her, and as Polk went toward her, her father struggled with Richardson.

Polk went to help Richardson with the man struggling, and Polk’s shotgun fired. After that, Richardson shot the father in the back, severing his spine.

The robbers left the house, but before leaving, Drayton ordered the wife and daughter not to move for the next 15 minutes. They spent a total of 48 minutes in the home, and within minutes of being shot, the father bled to death.

Drayton and Richardson have filed petitions for resentencing. Drayton’s was denied in May, and Richardson’s is still pending.