Summary of Offense:
Convicted and sentenced to death for the 1983 murder of Gulshakar Khwaja. The murder was committed during the robbery of Gulshakar’s son, Anwar Khwaja. On the afternoon of February 25, 1983, Anwar Khwaja, the robbery victim and son of the murder victim, was parked in front of his mother’s home waiting for her and other family members to get into his car. Burton approached the vehicle, pointed a gun at Khwaja’s face, and demanded money. Even though Khwaja complied with the demand by telling Burton to take his money—a cloth bag containing $190 in coins he had just picked up from a Long Beach branch of the Bank of America—Burton shot him in the forehead and then through the eye. Khwaja, who remained conscious, saw Burton take the money bag. Burton was smiling or laughing contentedly. When Khwaja’s mother, Gulshakar Khwaja, approached the car, Burton shot her, fatally, in the chest. Khwaja identified Burton as the gunman at trial. So did Robert Cordova, a neighbor who looked out the window and saw Burton running down the street carrying a gun and a white canvas bag.
Burton was sentenced to death in Los Angeles County on June 4, 1985.
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