Jury Cites Abuse in Urging Life Sentences for 3 in ‘Mall Murders’ : Trial: Death is recommended only for ringleader John Lewis. Jurors’ statement says the defendants’ troubled childhoods ‘formed the mind-set’ for crimes.

Three of the four people convicted of a brutal 1991 kidnap-and-murder rampage dubbed the “mall murders” were spared the death sentence Wednesday by a Pomona jury that--in an unusual move--issued a plea against child abuse.

After deliberating for less than a day, the Superior Court jurors recommended life in state prison without possibility of parole for Vincent Hubbard, 27; Robbin Machuca, 27, and Eileen Huber, 21.

Only John Lewis, 27, whom police and defense attorneys called the manipulative ringleader of a deadly crime family, received a death sentence recommendation from the jury.

Formal sentencing was set for March 2, when Judge Clarence Stromwall will decide whether to follow the jury’s recommendations.

The jury left the courtroom immediately and issued only a written statement:

“These defendants, as children, were either neglected, ignored, unloved, left out and/or severely abused in some of the worst ways imaginable. It was the manner in which these defendants were raised, or lack of, which formed the mind-set for executing these tragic crimes.”

The statement urged adults who are abusing their children to stop. “Consider what they may grow up to become,” the jurors wrote.

Machuca and Huber burst into tears at hearing the death sentence recommendation for Lewis. But the two women stopped crying when their life sentences were read.

Lewis showed little reaction, then turned to his sister, Machuca, and said, “I’m glad you didn’t get death. It’s all right. Don’t worry about me.”

Julian Ducree, Lewis’ attorney, said afterward that his client was expecting the death penalty.

“Let’s face it, they’ve got me for killing five people,” Ducree said Lewis told him.

Hubbard had little reaction to his life sentence recommendation.

Defense attorneys, who had painted a horrific picture of abuse and neglect of their clients during the penalty phase, praised jurors for rejecting death sentences for three of the defendants.

“It was a proper verdict as to the women and Hubbard,” said Hubbard’s attorney, Richard Cailouette Jr.

“I thought it was justifiable,” agreed Hubbard’s co-counsel Gerald Gornik. “Mr. Hubbard has a documented history of severe mental illness and we were able to demonstrate that to the jury.”

In asking the jury to spare Hubbard from the death penalty, his attorneys called doctors to testify that his IQ was “dull normal,” or about 80, and that a lifetime of drug abuse had impaired his ability to think clearly or act independently.

Attorneys for Machuca presented her history of being repeatedly raped by her father from the time she was 8 years old. At age 13, she gave birth to a child by her father. Further, Machuca’s family members testified that she was beaten regularly by her mother, who took no action to stop the father’s sexual abuse.

Huber, who had been Lewis’ girlfriend, was shown to have had a relatively normal childhood until her mother abandoned the family when Huber was 11. The girl then began drinking heavily, abused drugs and began a series of dependent relationships with men.

Although Lewis’ attorneys presented an equally horrific picture of his childhood that included sodomy by his father, psychiatrists testified that he is animalistic, predatory and manipulative. Those characteristics were repeatedly brought up by the other attorneys who blamed Lewis for creating the entire crime scenario.

Lewis was the only one of the four who was convicted on Dec. 18 of all charges, including five murders and two other kidnapings and robberies.

Deputy Dist. Atty. John Urgo, who had sought the death penalty for all four, was visibly disappointed and left court Wednesday without speaking to reporters.

West Covina Police Cmdr. John Distelrath, in whose jurisdiction the four had been arrested, said the recommendations made him “disappointed at the system.”

“If anybody deserved to pay the death penalty, all four of them did,” he said. “They loved (committing the crimes). You could see it in their faces when we arrested them. They were callous, cold, heartless people.”

The victims were Jose Avina, 22, of Norwalk, shot July 5 in Monrovia; Augustine Ramirez, 53, of West Covina, shot Aug. 4 behind a West Covina restaurant he owned; Willie Newton Sams, 40, of West Covina, killed Aug. 18; Elizabeth Nisbet, 49, of Diamond Bar, killed Aug. 24 after being abducted from the Puente Hills Mall, and Shirley Denogean, 56, of Claremont, killed Aug. 27 after being abducted from the same mall.

Loretta Sams, the wife of murder victim Willie Newton Sams--who was kidnaped from a West Covina bank’s automated teller machine and then robbed, shot and thrown in a dumpster--said she was angered by the jury’s recommendations.

“The message is, you can go out and murder innocent people because you had a bad childhood or you’re ill,” she said angrily as she left the courthouse. “That’s what this is telling kids.”

Times staff writer Mike Ward contributed to this story.