The Region - News from June 26, 1985

Court of Appeal justices ordered recomputation of the sentence of Leonard Brown, who was convicted of robbery, kidnaping, rape, forcible oral copulation and murder committed during a four-day crime spree in 1979. Brown had been sentenced by Long Beach Superior Court Judge Pat Mullendore to consecutive terms of life imprisonment without possibility of parole for the two murders and 58 years, 8 months for the other crimes. The justices said Brown was erroneously sentenced for his sex crimes under a law that became effective a year after he committed them, so he must be resentenced. They also reversed the jury’s special circumstances finding, which requires life without parole, in one of the two murders. The remainder of the verdict was upheld.