Death Sentences in Pasadena Halloween Murders Included in Newsom’s Sweeping Clemency Order

The three men sentenced to death for the 1993 Halloween night murders of three teenage boys in Pasadena are among 548 condemned prisoners whose sentences Gov. Gavin Newsom moved Thursday to commute to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Karl Darnell Holmes, Herbert Charles McClain Jr. and Lorenzo Alex Newborn were convicted of murdering Edgar Evans, 13, Stephen Coats, 14, and Reggie Crawford, 14, in a gang-related ambush that shocked Pasadena and became one of the city’s most notorious crimes.

The boys were walking home from a Halloween party on Oct. 31, 1993, when gunmen opened fire near North Wilson and Villa streets. Prosecutors said the attackers mistook the teenagers for rival gang members and unleashed a barrage of gunfire in retaliation for an earlier killing.

The three defendants were convicted of multiple felonies in December 1995, three counts of first-degree murder and five counts of attempted murder and were sentenced to death.

Newsom’s announcement Thursday would replace their death sentences with life imprisonment without parole.

However, under the state constitution clemency for prisoners convicted of multiple felonies requires approval from a majority of the California Supreme Court’s justices. According to the governor’s office, 382 of the 548 commutations require that approval.

The status of the required court approval in the local case was not immediately clear Thursday.

The governor’s action does not overturn the men’s convictions or make them eligible for release.

The Halloween killings occurred during a period of gang violence in northwest Pasadena.

Earlier that evening, Fernando Hodges, a man associated with a Pasadena gang, had been shot and killed near the Community Arms apartment complex.

Prosecutors argued that Holmes, McClain and Newborn believed rival gang members were responsible and set out to retaliate.

Instead, they encountered a group of boys returning home from a Halloween birthday party.

According to testimony presented at trial, several vehicles carrying gang members drove through the neighborhood before the attackers positioned themselves near the boys’ route.

The teenagers had no connection to the earlier killing.

As the boys walked along Wilson Street, a gunman emerged and shots rang out. Witnesses described hearing approximately 20 gunshots as the children scattered.

Three boys were killed, and five others survived the attack.

The murders devastated the victims’ families and forced reluctant city leaders to finally address Pasadena gang violence.

“That was the launch pad that started the community at large conversation and opened everybody’s eyes to the deeper problem,” said Ricky Pickens, whose company GOVIS performs gang intervention in the city. “That was the catapult to look at deeper strategies of gang intervention.”

After more homicides involving young people, in 1996 then-Police Chief Bernard Melekian implemented the No More Dead Kids program.

The program was successful. Pasadena had 30 consecutive months with zero homicides.

During the trial, prosecutors alleged that the defendants had mistaken the boys for rival gang members because of their appearance and clothing, including bandannas.

The prosecution’s case relied heavily on witness testimony. No murder weapon was recovered, and there was no fingerprint or DNA evidence linking the defendants to the crime scene.

Defense attorneys challenged the credibility of prosecution witnesses, arguing that some had criminal histories and had received benefits for cooperating with authorities.

Jurors convicted all three men of the murders and attempted murders.

The California Supreme Court upheld their convictions and death sentences in 2022.

Newsom’s sweeping clemency announcement Thursday affects all 548 prisoners under death sentences in California, including 529 men and 19 women.

The governor said his decision reflected his longstanding opposition to capital punishment and concerns about the fairness and reliability of the death penalty system.

“I take this action because I firmly believe that state-sanctioned killing is incompatible with California’s values, undermines the foundations of our legal system, and diminishes each of us,” Newsom wrote in a letter announcing the decision.

Newsom acknowledged that his action could reopen painful memories for families of murder victims.

“As Governor, I alone bear responsibility for this decision and its impact, just as I alone would bear responsibility for each execution,” he wrote.

The announcement drew criticism from victims’ relatives, prosecutors and victims’ rights advocates who argued that the commutations disregarded jury verdicts and the suffering of families.

The American Civil Liberties Union praised the decision, describing capital punishment as discriminatory, prone to error and inhumane.

Newsom imposed a moratorium on executions in 2019, shortly after taking office. California has not executed a prisoner since 2006.