05 April 2025 :
April 3, 2025 - California. Death penalty conviction for Timothy McGhee overturned
A notorious gang killer
The California Supreme Court overturned the death penalty of one of L.A.’s most notorious gang killers Thursday, saying a juror who likely would have spared Timothy McGhee from execution was wrongly dismissed. McGhee’s father was a White American of Scottish ancestry, while his mother was Mexican American. McGhee, now 51, was one of the country’s most wanted fugitives when he was nabbed in Bullhead City following a nationwide manhunt in 2003. The head of the Toonerville gang in Atwater Village, he was suspected in 9 killings, charged with 6, and convicted of 3.
Those convictions, handed down with the death penalty in 2009, were reversed Thursday in the court’s sweeping decision.
McGhee was sentenced in the deaths of rival gang members Ronnie Martin, 25 and Ryan Gonzalez, 17, as well as 25-year-old Margie Mendoza, the girlfriend of another rival.
Los Angeles District Attorney Nathan Hochman did not immediately say whether he would retry McGhee for the murders, nor whether he would again seek the death penalty, which his predecessor abjured.
Hochman said late last month he will seek the death penalty in some cases, reversing the previous moratorium.
