Big Boy Bob’s killer, Ricky Sanders, is on death row but faces the possibility of death penalty

FIRST ON FOX – Los Angeles voters are fed up with George Gascon, but the outgoing district attorney isn’t done pushing for the brutal killers to be released from prison.

A former public defender whom Gascon brought in as his “special counsel” is pushing for a commuted sentence for a convicted mass shooter on death row who and an accomplice forced 11 people into a freezer at Bob’s Big Boy restaurant days before Christmas 1980. , robbed them and shot them from behind, killing four and wounding another four.

Ricardo “Ricky” Sanders (now 69) and his partner Franklin Freeman Jr. were convicted of participating in the massacre at a restaurant on La Cienega Boulevard.

Freeman was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Sanders received the death penalty, but was not executed due to appeals and California’s moratorium on the death penalty.

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Sanders, after exhausting appeals, is fighting for acquittal. Shelan Joseph, a former public defender and now special counsel to Gascon, is reviewing the request.

Joseph’s support for sentencing reductions in the past has sparked protests from relatives of victims, including the family of Fred Rose, who was kidnapped, robbed and killed in 1992.

She successfully oversaw the commutation of his killer’s sentence, Scott Forrest Collinswho was removed from death row in 2022 but died in prison shortly thereafter.

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A spokesman for Gascon’s office said the request to discipline Sanders was based on his defense. Sanders’ public defender did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

His crime is one of the worst murders Los Angeles has ever seen.

“Sanders’ senseless and horrific crimes make him undeserving of any expression of resentment,” said Kathleen Cady, a prominent Los Angeles victims’ advocate who filed the complaint this week. “The victims whose lives he stole and their families should never be forgotten.”

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Brutal crime

The details of the mass murder were well documented at trial and on appeal.

Sanders and Freeman forced their way inside around 2 a.m. on December 14, 1980, as employees were closing the store. They broke down the door at gunpoint after employees opened it to let two customers out.

“We’re going to the back,” Sanders said, according to court documents. – You’ll get hurt.

Freeman hit someone in the head with the butt of the shotgun with enough force to knock him out, and the rest of the group went to the back of the restaurant. Sanders told the night manager to empty the safe of $1,300 and then forced the group into the freezer.

The fraudsters demanded their wallets, watches and jewelry. Victims threw their valuables into a bucket and handed them over, which some of them “begged” for. robbers so as not to harm them,” according to court documents.

Sanders and Freeman told everyone to turn around, face the wall and kneel. They then opened fire with a pistol and shotgun, shooting at the group from behind until they ran out of ammunition.

Three of the victims died instantly. The fourth died after months in hospital. Four other people were injured, including one who lost an eye and another who suffered a spinal injury and had problems walking for the rest of her life.

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Court documents show that Sanders had no alibi and instead claimed at trial that four witnesses and two informants incorrectly identified him as one of the gunmen. None of the suspects wore masks at night crime.

In 2017, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld his death sentence. Due to a moratorium on the death penalty in California, he has been on death row for several decades, but it is unlikely that he will face execution.

State prison records show Freeman received a separate sentence of life in prison without parole. Another suspect involved in planning the robbery, Carletha Stewart, was sentenced to life in prison Los Angeles Times.

Stewart, who is no longer in state custody and was dating Sanders at the time of the robbery, is Freeman’s cousin and previously worked at the restaurant, according to court documents. She was instrumental in planning the robbery and warned one of her friends who worked there at the time not to be in the restaurant on the night of the crime.

The murdered victims were restaurateur David Burrell and employees Dita Agtane, Ahmad Mushuk and Cesario Luna. Luna’s son also worked in the restaurant, witnessed his father’s murder and survived the massacre.

“Sanders has died and all of his legal remedies have been exhausted,” a source with knowledge of the matter told Fox News Digital. “Now Gascon is seeking to enable him to apply for parole after 25 years of proceedings that have exhausted his appeal options.”

But the source added that if the sentence is reduced to life in prison without parole, Sanders will lose some privileges, including a private cell and access to elite lawyers.

The sentencing hearing is scheduled for November 22.

Sanders’ defense team at trial included famed Los Angeles defense attorney Leslie Abramson, who also played a role in the Menendez brothers’ case.

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Gascon, who has long opposed the death penalty, filed another petition expressing remorse also on behalf of the two convicted killers, although their hearing was scheduled after he left office.

Joseph Menendez, who goes by his middle name Lyle, and younger brother Erik Menendez have been incarcerated in California prisons since 1996, serving life sentences without the possibility of parole murder of parents in 1989.

That could soon change if any of their new requests for release are granted: filing a habeas corpus petition asking for the murder conviction to be reduced to manslaughter; a clemency request from Gov. Gavin Newsom; or their pending re-consent requests.

Newsom said this week will reserve judgment on the Menendez brothers’ case until Gascon’s successor, Nathan Hochman, has a chance to review it.