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Thread: Cervantes, Sawyer and Sawyer Sentenced to 15 Years to Life in 2017 CA Slaying of John Haig Marshall

  1. #1
    Senior Member CnCP Legend CharlesMartel's Avatar
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    Cervantes, Sawyer and Sawyer Sentenced to 15 Years to Life in 2017 CA Slaying of John Haig Marshall


    John Haig Marshall


    Myles Sawyer, Taylor Cervantes, Tyler Stark, Brandon Sawyer


    4 men charged with murdering Redondo Beach sex offender

    By Larry Altman
    The Beach Reporter

    Four South Bay men were charged Friday with killing and robbing a registered sex offender, strangling him and attacking him with pliers and bolt cutters when he got out of his shower in his Redondo Beach apartment.

    The charges make them eligible for the death penalty.

    The victim, John Haig Marshall, 61, died Nov,. 28, five years after he was sent to prison for drugging a young male friend, shaving his body hair and sexually assaulting him in that same shower area amid allegations he had molested more than a dozen other victims since the 1970s.

    Whether the homicide was linked to Marshall’s sordid past was unclear. A complaint filed at the Torrance courthouse Friday alleges the men committed a home invasion robbery, taking two cellphones, two briefcases, a VHS video camera and Marshall’s passport. The cellphones were pawned at a shop in Compton.

    Court appearances

    The alleged killers — Taylor John Cervantes, 22, of Hawthorne; Tyler Lee Stark, 24, of Torrance; Myles Jorge Sawyer, 25, of Torrance; and his brother, Brandon Scott Takeo Sawyer, 23, of Torrance — made appearances together Friday in Torrance court, but their arraignment was postponed until Jan. 30.

    Judge Thomas Sokolov ordered them held in county jail without bail.

    Each was charged with felony counts of murder, conspiracy to commit burglary, first-degree burglary with a person present, and home-invasion robbery. The District Attorney’s Office also filed special circumstances allegations that the murder was committed during the commission of a robbery and a burglary, and an allegation that bolt cutters were used as a deadly and dangerous weapon.

    Prosecutors will later decide if they will seek the death penalty or life in prison without the chance of parole.

    Redondo Beach police officials declined comment Friday, referring questions to the District Attorney’s Office.

    Relationship unknown

    Coroner’s officials said Marshall died from neck compression and blunt head trauma.

    Marshall’s relationship to his alleged killers was not disclosed, but Marshall was known in the past to enjoy the company of young men and teenage boys.

    According to the criminal complaint filed in court, Stark, Cervantes, and the Sawyer brothers met in Torrance and drove in Stark’s car to a Home Depot in Torrance, where they purchased the Channellock pliers and bolt cutters and drove to Marshall’s apartment in the 300 block of North Catalina Avenue. Marshall owned and managed the building, and lived in one of the units.

    Cervantes and the Sawyer brothers, wearing dark clothing, put on gloves and covered their faces with bandannas, the complaint said. After Brandon Sawyer used the pliers to break the lock on Marshall’s door, the three entered. Cervantes walked into the bathroom, strangled Marshall with his hands when he exited the shower, and Cervantes, Brandon Sawyer and Myles Sawyer assaulted and killed Marshall using the pliers and bolt cutter, the document said..

    After taking Marshall’s property, Stark drove the group to his home in Torrance. Stark and Brandon Sawyer later pawned Marshall’s cellphones.

    Redondo Beach police arrested the men earlier this week, jail records show. The records also showed the men had previous contacts with South Bay law enforcement.

    Victim’s crimes

    Marshall also was well known to the Redondo Beach Police Department. Officers arrested him on Oct. 8, 2009, when a 29-year-old man sought medical treatment, telling doctors he had been drugged and raped. The man feared he had contracted a sexually transmitted disease. Doctors reported the crime to police.

    According to a police spokesman at the time, the man told officers he and Marshall knew each other and drank together on several occasions. He went to Marshall’s apartment a few days earlier to work on his computer. After Marshall provided him with an alcoholic drink, he became incapacitated and found himself in Marshall’s shower, alert but unable to respond to what was happening to him. Prosecutors at the time said Marshall sexually assaulted the man with a thin, hard object and shaved his body hair. The man later awakened on the sofa and left the apartment.

    The Daily Breeze reported at the time that police detectives were already investigating sexual assault allegations previously made against Marshall, who had served as a police reserve officer for nine months from 1980 to 1981, when he resigned for unknown reasons. The allegations included reports that Marshall had drugged an underage boy and engaged in sex with him over an extended period in 2000. Prosecutors declined to file charges because the allegations were made beyond the statute of limitations for the offenses.

    In 2005 and 2006, police staked out Marshall’s apartment building when callers reported on law enforcement tip lines that high school boys were going to Marshall’s apartment and coming out “stoned.” The callers said Marshall provided teens with Quaaludes, cocaine, methamphetamine, marijuana, and alcohol, police said. Detectives were unable to corroborate the tips.

    Facing eight years in prison on several charges, Marshall agreed to a plea deal with prosecutors in Torrance Superior Court that sent him away for three years. Marshall, the son of the late Alese Marshall, who operated a modeling and talent agency in Torrance, pleaded no contest to a charge of sexual penetration of an intoxicated person and was ordered to register as a sex offender upon his release.

    Marshall’s attorney on the case said Marshall feared likely testimony during the case about allegations that he drugged and molested teen boys as far back as the 1970s. Police said 14 people had contacted detectives following Marshall’s arrest.

    http://tbrnews.com/news/redondo_beac...9e1d55ba4.html
    Last edited by CharlesMartel; 01-31-2018 at 07:41 AM. Reason: add photo of convicts

  2. #2
    Administrator Helen's Avatar
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    I'm sorry but I can't muster any sympathy for this dead sex offender.
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

  3. #3
    Senior Member CnCP Legend CharlesMartel's Avatar
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    4 men plead not guilty to killing sex offender in Redondo Beach

    By LARRY ALTMAN
    Daily Breeze

    Four South Bay men pleaded not guilty Tuesday to charges alleging they killed a registered sex offender during a home-invasion robbery at his Redondo Beach apartment.

    The men — Taylor John Cervantes, 22, of Hawthorne; Tyler Lee Stark, 24, of Torrance; Myles Jorge Sawyer, 25, of Torrance; and his brother, Brandon Scott Takeo Sawyer, 23, of Torrance — appeared for their arraignment in Torrance Superior Court.

    Judge Thomas Sokolov ordered them held in jail without bail and scheduled them to return to court May 8.

    Prosecutors said the men allegedly killed John Haig Marshall, 61, on Nov. 28 after allegedly breaking into his apartment while he was in the shower. He was strangled and assaulted with pliers and bolt cutters.

    Marshall, the son of Torrance modeling school founder Alese Marshall, was convicted in 2012 of drugging and sexually assaulting a man in his apartment. During the assault, he shaved the victim’s entire body.

    Prosecutors allege the Sawyer brothers, Cervantes and Stark broke into Marshall’s Catalina Avenue apartment and surprised him as he got out of his shower. Cervantes allegedly strangled Marshall with his hands, while Cervantes, Brandon Sawyer and Myles Sawyer assaulted and killed him. Stark drove the car, prosecutors allege.

    Each man is charged with felony counts of murder, conspiracy to commit burglary, first-degree burglary with a person present, and home-invasion robbery. They also face special circumstances allegations that the murder was committed during the commission of a robbery and a burglary, and an allegation that bolt cutters were used as a deadly and dangerous weapon.

    Prosecutors will decide later whether to seek the death penalty or a term of life in prison without parole.

    https://www.dailybreeze.com/2018/01/...redondo-beach/

  4. #4
    Senior Member CnCP Legend JLR's Avatar
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    Theres a Tyler Lee Stark sentenced on the 16th of March 2020 whose eligible for parole in December 2022. May be the Tyler Stark from this case. It appears he wasn't involved in the actual killing so may have taken a plea deal?

    https://inmatelocator.cdcr.ca.gov/De...aspx?ID=BL7659

  5. #5
    Administrator Helen's Avatar
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    It has to be him he's the right age.
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

  6. #6
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    October 28, 2021

    3 men receive 15 years to life for killing registered sex offender in Redondo Beach

    By Nathaniel Percy
    Daily Breeze

    Three men were sentenced to 15 years to life in prison after pleading no contest this week to killing a registered sex offender during a home-invasion robbery in his Redondo Beach apartment in 2017, authorities said.

    Taylor John Cervantes, 26, of Hawthorne, Myles Jorge Sawyer, 28, and his brother, Brandon Scott Takeo Sawyer, 27, both of Torrance, were handed their sentences immediately after entering their pleas to second-degree murder on Wednesday, Oct. 27, in Torrance Superior Court, Deputy District Attorney Shiraz Khalid said.

    Charges of conspiracy, burglary and robbery were dismissed against the three as part of the plea deals, Khalid said.

    A fourth man charged in the case, Tyler Lee Stark, 27, of Torrance was sentenced to six years in state prison in February 2020 after pleading no contest to robbery, court records show.

    Stark drove the men to and from the apartment while the other three entered and killed John Haig Marshall on Nov. 28, 2017, prosecutors said.

    Whether Marshall’s past played a role in his death was unclear. He was arrested in 2009 after a man told police Marshall drugged and sexually assaulted him in Marshall’s shower.

    Marshall took a plea deal in 2012, was sentenced to three years in prison and ordered to register as a sex offender.

    According to the criminal complaint, the four men met in Torrance and drove to a Home Depot in Torrance, purchasing pliers and bolt cutters, before driving to Marshall’s apartment in the 300 block of North Catalina Avenue. Marshall owned and managed the building.

    Cervantes and the Sawyer brothers entered the building and surprised Marshall as he stepped out of the shower, the complaint said.

    Cervantes strangled Marshall with his hands and the three men tortured him with the pliers and bolt cutters before killing him, the complaint said.

    Marshall died of neck compression and blunt head trauma, according to a coroner’s report.

    They then took Marshall’s cell phones, two briefcases, a VHS video camera and his passport, later pawning the cell phones at a Compton shop, authorities said.

    The men were arrested by Redondo Beach police in January 2018.

    https://www.dailybreeze.com/2021/10/...redondo-beach/

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