Three-Strikes Opponent Charged with Four Murders
A convicted felon who opposed California’s three-strikes law on The Montel Williams Show and in public appearances has been charged with four murders.
John Wesley Ewell, 53, managed to escape the law’s dictates in the 1990s when the Los Angeles district attorney chose not to seek a life sentence in a check forgery case as part of a plea bargain, report the Los Angeles Times and the New York Times. He had two previous robbery convictions, one for robbing a jogger and another for binding a motorist’s hands and taking his wallet, watch and truck. The sentence was seven years in prison.
Ewell is now charged with four murders in three home invasion robberies committed this fall while facing charges of switching price tags on items at Home Depot.
Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorney John Lynch defended his office’s decisions. “I really don’t think anybody could pretend to anticipate that … this guy would suddenly go from stealing things from Home Depot to murdering old people,” he told the Los Angeles Times.
