A former Palos Verdes High School student was acquitted this week of a first-degree murder charge stemming from a South Los Angeles gang shooting that left a 21-year-old man dead.
After more than a week of deliberations, a downtown Los Angeles jury also acquitted Cameron Terrell, 18, of two counts of attempted murder involving two other men who were not injured in the Oct. 1, 2017, shooting that killed Justin Holmes. Prosecutors contended Terrell drove the getaway car in the shooting.
Deputy District Attorney Adan Montalban told jurors during the trial that Terrell is a gang member. He said Terrell knew there was a gang rivalry—in which a fellow gang member had been shot earlier—when he drove into rival gang territory with two juveniles who got out of the car and confronted Holmes and the other two men, who denied any gang affiliation before the shooting on 78th Street near Western Avenue.
The deputy district attorney disputed Terrell’s subsequent claim to police that he thought the two might yell out or engage in a fistfight, questioning why the defendant stopped his car out of sight and let two juveniles get out of the vehicle to confront three adults if he thought it was going to be a fistfight.
Defense attorney Jovan Blacknell told jurors his client didn’t know anyone was going to be shot on a Sunday in broad daylight.
“Cameron didn’t expect to hear gunshots. He didn’t expect any of this to happen,’’ Terrell’s attorney said.
“When he hears the gunshots, he’s shocked,’’ Terrell’s attorney said, telling jurors that the young man’s first instinct after hearing the gunshots was to “survive’’ and “drive a whole city block away.’’
He said his client was reacting to something he didn’t expect and that he thought his two friends were in danger when he saw them running back to the vehicle, and questioned why Terrell would drive “his daddy’s car’’ if he knew there was going to be a shooting.
Terrell and the two juvenile suspects were arrested Oct. 12. A $5 million bond was subsequently posted on Terrell’s behalf and he returned to classes at Palos Verdes High School. When news of his arrest spread at the campus in the upscale area, some parents began expressing concern about the safety of allowing him back in class.
His parents—identified by the Daily Breeze as media consulting firm president Donald Wayne Terrell and interior designer Debra Terrell —eventually agreed to pull him out of classes.
