After a day and a half of jury deliberation, 58-year-old Long Beach resident Mark Stephen Thurwachter was convicted for the murder of his neighbor, 60-year-old Marvin Williams.
On February 1, 2012, members of the Arbor Mobile Village community near 48th and Long Beach Boulevard heard a gun shot and later found Williams wounded in front of his residence. Williams had succumed to his injuries by the time police arrived.
Thurwachter, who had been seen at the scene moments before, had fled his home, prompting the Long Beach Police Department (LBPD) to issue a warrant for his arrest; he wasn’t apprehended until months later when he was discovered to be hiding in Ohio, reportedly caught by authorities while trying to evade paying for transit in Cleveland. He was then held on a $2M bail.
According to evidence presented at the trial, Thurwachter and Williams were initially friends until Thurwachter believed that Williams had stolen money from him. This was the apparent motive behind the murder according to Deputy District Attorney Patrick O’Crowley.
Thurwachter is scheduled to be sentenced by Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge James B. Pierce on February 26, facing a possible maximum sentence of 50 years, eight months to life in state prison.
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