Convictions Upheld for Killers of Pot Distributor

LONG BEACH - A state appellate court panel on Thursday upheld the convictions of two men for the 2011 murder of a medical marijuana distributor whose body was found in a Long Beach alley, but reversed the special circumstance finding that resulted in them being sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

A three-justice panel from California's 2nd District Court of Appeal affirmed the convictions of Kenneth Ray Johnson and Charles Anthony Mackbee for the March 24, 2011, shooting death of Phillip Williamson, 29, of West Los Angeles, but ruled that "the jury instructions were defective" in vacating a jury's finding of the special circumstance allegation of murder during a robbery.

"As the prosecutor acknowledged during closing argument, the evidence does not conclusively establish which of the two -- Johnson or Mackbee -- was the killer," the appellate court panel found in a 17-page ruling. "Because only one of them was the killer and because the other one was necessarily not the killer, either one of them could be a robbery participant who was not the killer. As a result, the trial court was obligated to instruct on the additional elements as to both Johnson and Mackbee. Yet the court did not instruct on these additional elements as to either defendant."

The appeals court justices noted that the evidence presented at their trial in 2014 "overwhelmingly establishes that both Johnson and Mackbee were 'major participants' in the robbery of Williamson" and that "both Mackbee and Johnson also claimed to have been the shooter after the fact, yet one of them was lying because there was only one shooter."

The appellate court panel ordered the case to be sent back to the trial court, where the prosecution can opt to retry the two former Long Beach residents on the special circumstance allegation or to have a judge sentence the two without the special circumstance finding.

Mackbee's cousin, Marcel Maurice Mackabee, who lived in Granada Hills, was tried separately and convicted of first-degree murder and the special circumstance allegation of murder during a robbery in connection with Williams' killing. He is serving a life prison term without the possibility of parole, and his conviction was upheld in June 2014 by a separate appellate court panel.

Williams -- who picked up marijuana from northern California and sold it in large quantities to medical marijuana dispensaries -- was shot once in the back of the head and dumped in an alley in the 1500 block of Pine Avenue. He died a day later.

Authorities believe that Mackabee -- who had met the victim through a mutual friend -- drove Williamson to Long Beach under the guise of a marijuana deal and that Mackabee returned to the victim's apartment to retrieve more than $100,000 in cash after the victim was shot by one of the other two men.

--City News Service, photo via Shutterstock