Ex Federal Cop Sentenced In Hollywood Murder Case

LOS ANGELES -- A former federal police officer convicted of murdering a young man in Hollywood after DNA linked him to the crime more than three decades ago was on Friday sentenced to 27 years to life in state prison.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Larry Paul Fidler denied the defense's motion for a new trial for Pierre Romain, now 55, who was convicted in August 2017 of first-degree murder for the June 29, 1987, shooting of Jade Maurice Clark.

The victim's mother, Yolanda, who asked that her last name not be used, held up a prom photo of her son and told the judge that now-retired Los Angeles Police Department Detective Rick Jackson -- who was with her in court -- had vowed that he would never give up his efforts to find her son's killer and make sure the gunman was held responsible.

She lashed out at Romain, saying he was ``nothing more than a thief that stole Jade's life,'' and ``kept living his life a lie and full of deception to become a police officer.''

Prosecutors said that Romain was a 22-year-old gang member at the time of Clark's killing -- an assertion the defense contested. Police said Romain had crashed a friend's customized Nissan 300 ZX just before he and an accomplice tried to take a nearly identical model from Clark, who was parked outside a club at 845 N. Highland Ave.

Romain was wounded in the arm in trading shots with the fatally injured Clark, who had a .25-caliber pistol under his seat, police said.

Romain and an accomplice were arrested about a month after the shooting, but charges were dismissed before trial based on insufficient evidence. At the time of that first arrest, Romain was an active candidate for a job as a Los Angeles Police Department officer.

Romain was arrested again in 2003, while employed as a Department of Defense police sergeant at Los Angeles Air Force Base in El Segundo. At the time of his 2003 arrest, Romain had applied for a job with the San Francisco Police Department. A call from that department's background
investigators prompted Jackson to re-examine physical evidence from the cold-case shooting.

More sophisticated DNA testing technology allowed detectives to use a bullet fired from Clark's gun to tie Romain to the case.

City News Service contributed to this report.