4th Defendant Guilty in Officer’s Killing

A Torrance Superior Court jury Tuesday returned a first-degree murder conviction against the final defendant charged in the 1988 shooting death of an Inglewood police officer.

Prosecutors had called Joevone Elster the organizer of the bungled armed robbery of a gas station money courier, which led to the shooting. Jurors reached a verdict in the third day of deliberations.

Elster, 23, of Los Angeles, had worked at the Inglewood gas station, but was fired a few weeks before the March 31 robbery in which Sgt. George Aguilar was killed, according to testimony.

Another defendant, Van Otis Wilson, was found guilty of first-degree murder and robbery last Wednesday. A third defendant, Patrick Anthony Carr, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in exchange for his testimony against Wilson and Elster. A 14-year-old boy also was found guilty of first-degree murder and will be confined to a California Youth Authority facility until age 25.

The alleged triggerman, Leslie Holget, killed himself hours after Aguilar’s death as officers moved in to arrest him after a 45-mile chase, police said.

Aguilar, an undercover narcotics officer, saw the robbery and was chasing one of three getaway cars when he was shot. He is the first Inglewood police officer killed in the line of duty in the department’s 80-year history.

Elster, Wilson and Carr will be sentenced Oct. 27 by Superior Court Judge John P. Shook. Elster and Wilson face 25 years to life in prison for murder and robbery. Carr is expected to receive about 15 years, his attorneys said.