Two men accused of fatally shooting a pizza deliveryman in Long Beach nearly 20 years ago were found guilty today, the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office (LADA) announced.
After deliberating for a little more than a day, a jury found James Lemon and Venda Johnson guilty of the first-degree murder of Renato Teniente.
Jurors also found true a special circumstance allegation of murder in the commission of an attempted robbery, as well as an allegation that one of the suspects was armed with a handgun during the killing, according to the LADA.
Long Beach Police Department (LBPD) officers arrested Lemon and Johnson last September in connection with the murder, which occurred on November 22, 1995. Lemon was 17 years old at the time of the murder and Johnson was 16.
Police said that on that day, the day before Thanksgiving, Teniente sat in his car after delivering a pizza to a house in the area of 55th and Paramount in Devenport Park. Two men then approached Teniente, who was 60 years old, and attempted to rob him before shooting him in the upper body, police said.
LBPD eventually identified two men in connection to the incident, but the case went cold due to a lack of witness cooperation, police said. The case was reopened last year, and Lemon and Johnson were identified.
Lemon was located and arrested in Las Vegas on Sept. 19, 2013 by an FBI task force agent, police said. He was 34 at the time of his arrest.
Johnson, also 34 at the time of his identification, was already serving a life sentence for a separate triple murder at Buena Vista State Prison in Colorado, police said.
Lemon and Johnson are scheduled to be sentenced January 20, and face a possible maximum sentence of life in state prison without the possibility of parole.