Moments before Junior Vera caught his latest in a charmed necklace of good breaks this morning, murder defendant Scott A. Ansman’s date to stand trial for allegedly killing his girlfriend last year was set for Tuesday, Jan. 27, at the Airport Courthouse.
Following numerous delays, lawyers for both sides will report to Judge James R. Dabney on Jan. 2. They will meet to confirm that all legal machinery is in place to proceed with the likely one-week trial in the death of JoAnn Crystal Harris and her unborn child.
If convicted in the chase-scene slaying that police say featured the use of a baseball bat on Aug. 24 of last year at the National Guard Armory, Sgt. Ansman faces a sentence of life without possibility of parole.
The Newest Vera Saga
Meanwhile, 43-year-old Albert Vera Jr., the son of perhaps Culver City’s best-known merchant, pleaded no-contest to all five counts — variously involving possession of guns and drugs — lodged against him after his latest arrest last July 15.
Once regarded as a near cinch to be returned to state prison, Mr. Vera’s attorney, public defender Nan Whitfield, convinced the District Attorney’s office, and Judge Dabney, that he deserved still another chance to reform himself from what the judge characterized as his addiction to meth.
Formal sentencing was set for next Thursday, Dec. 11.
Despite multiple arrests in recent years on similar charges, Judge Dabney indicated he intends to give Mr. Vera one more opportunity to prove himself by sending him for one year to a residential drug treatment center plus three years’ felony probation.
Under a Threat
If he falters in the slightest, the judge vowed that Mr. Vera would be dispatched to state prison for the maximum time he could impose, likely seven years.
This prospect probably would stun the defendant. Until last year, he had spent no consequential amount of time behind bars.
The son of former Mayor Albert Vera remains, however, far from being in the clear.
Within the next 35 days, according to his lawyer, Ms. Whitfield, the state Parole Board is scheduled to convene and decide whether Mr. Vera’s mid-summer arrest warrants an immediate trip back to state prison for an undetermined period.
If Mr. Vera is found in violation of parole terms, after he serves out his prison sentence, then he would be ordered to the residential drug treatment center directly upon his release. He still would be under a threat of an additional seven-year sentence if Judge Dabney determines that Mr. Vera has violated any of a series of behavioral orders during the probation period.
Which Way?
The judge attempted to sound both harsh and sympathetic, and it was not clear which sentiment he meant to telegraph with greater emphasis.
The D.A.’s office “has had it with you,” Judge Dabney told Mr. Vera. “Looking at your record for the last five years, I understand why.”
The judge also said: “I understand the nature of addiction, and I am giving you this one last chance. Do we understand each other?”
The soft-voiced Mr. Vera, seated at the defense table in his pea-green jail jumpsuit almost five months into his latest stretch, replied, “Yes, Your Honor.”
Continuing to rhetorically trade off admonitions with evident sympathy, Judge Dabney warned Mr. Vera that in the event of a single violation, “I will hammer you and give you every moment in state prison that I can.”
Somebody Was in the Dark
Judged by authorities to be high on drugs at the time of his mid-July arrest, Mr. Vera was seven months into a parole from state prison when he telephoned Culver City police.
The time was a little before 5 in the morning, and it was very dark.
The man known widely as Junior was hanging out with a woman companion behind a doughnut shop not far from his father’s ethnic market, according to police.
Mr. Vera told the cops by cellphone that he had seen a man waving a gun. To condense a lengthy account, no one in the vicinity of a firearm was discovered except for Mr. Vera.
