Photo: DSGpro / E+ / Getty Images
LOS ANGELES (CNS) - A state appellate court panel has rejected an appeal from a man who pleaded no contest to murdering four people during robberies at their homes in Hawthorne and Los Angeles within about a month in 2010.
In a ruling released Monday, a three-justice panel from California's 2nd District Court of Appeal rejected John Wesley Ewell's contention that Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Lisa B. Lench had erred in denying his motions to suppress evidence obtained in connection with his Oct. 23, 2010, arrest and a search warrant that day.
Ewell, now 66, pleaded no contest in May 2019 to four counts of murder for the Sept. 24, 2010, death of 80-year-old Hanna Morcos in his Hawthorne home, the Oct. 13, 2010, killing of 56-year-old Denice Roberts in her Los Angeles home, which is two doors from the defendant's residence, and the Oct. 22, 2010, slayings of 69-year-old Leamon Turnage and his 57-year-old wife, Robyn, in their Hawthorne home.
He also pleaded no contest to four counts of residential robbery and admitted the special circumstance allegations of murder during the course of a robbery and multiple murders.
Ewell was sentenced in July 2019 to four consecutive life prison terms without the possibility of parole.
In its 39-page ruling, the appellate court panel noted that recorded video from a Shell gas station showed Ewell using an ATM within minutes of the time bank records verified that Robyn Turnage's ATM card was used the day she was killed and the day after her killing.
At the time of the killings, Ewell was free on bond while awaiting sentencing in one case involving petty theft with a prior conviction and had two other similar cases that were pending, according to Deputy District Attorney Bobby Grace.
Ewell had prior convictions for robbery in 1988 and 2005, authorities said.
He had appeared on Montel Williams' talk show in 2006 to argue against California's three-strikes law, according to Los Angeles County Sheriff's Sgt. Steve Rubino.
Ewell was initially charged in October 2010 with murdering the Turnages, who were beaten and strangled in their ransacked home in the 4100 block of West 142nd Street.
The two -- who were bound and gagged -- had just returned to the Southland from a trip to Florida to visit their son and daughter-in-law for the birth of their first grandchild, sheriff's Lt. Dave Coleman said shortly after they were killed.
Ewell was arrested after using Robyn Turnage's ATM card at the Shell gas station the day after she and her husband were found dead, the prosecutor said.
He was subsequently charged in November 2010 with murdering Morcos and Roberts, the latter of whom was his neighbor.
Morcos, whose death was determined to be a homicide, suffered a heart attack as a result of the assault at his home in the 4100 block of West 137th Street, while Roberts was strangled in her home near where Ewell was living in the 12600 block of Hoover Street, authorities said.
Authorities subsequently discovered rare coins and other memorabilia that belonged to Morcos at a Los Angeles pawn shop and items belonging to the Turnages at another pawn shop, according to the prosecutor.
"It takes a special kind of darkness within to commit a crime of this nature, especially when the victim is elderly," one of Morcos' granddaughters, Diana Seif, said during Ewell's sentencing hearing in a downtown Los Angeles courtroom.
Morcos' daughter, Amany Sidrak, said her father's legacy "became tainted by a senseless tragedy," telling Ewell that he viewed her father as "yet another opportunity to take what didn't belong to you."
Leamon Turnage's daughter, Heidi Melber, said she was in court to be a voice for her father and stepmother, who were "happily enjoying retirement at the time" and "still had so much life to live."
She said she had to deliver the heartwrenching news to her grandmother about the killings because the woman's hospice nurse told her that her grandmother was waiting for someone.
"When I told her, she was gone in less than 30 seconds. And you, Mr. Ewell, forced me to do that ...," she said, speaking directly to the defendant.