Jason Russell Richardson, 39, of Oceanside, was convicted today in the 2007 killing of the manager of a Home Depot in Tustin.
The jury found the 39-year-old Oceanside resident guilty of one felony count of special circumstances murder during the commission of robbery and burglary, and the sentencing enhancements for the personal discharge of a firearm causing death were found true.
The district attorney is seeking the death penalty against Richardson. The penalty phase of his trial is scheduled to begin Tuesday in Santa Ana.
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Richardson left home the morning of Feb. 9, 2007, wearing a
full-body painter's suit, sunglasses, dust mask and gloves. He entered the Home Depot around 10 a.m. that morning carrying a
black bag. After approaching store employees and asking for the
manager, he walked up to Thomas Egan, pulled out a gun and demanded all the cash in the store's safe.
Egan
informed Richardson he did not have access to the safe, so the gunman
tried to rob employees manning cash registers at the front of the
store. After the manager instructed nearby employees to call 9-1-1,
he followed Richardson and tried to discourage him from harming or
robbing anyone.
That is when Richardson shot Egan in the stomach before fleeing the store with about $500.
Egan
died of massive internal injuries about two hours after undergoing
emergency surgery at Western Medical Center. The retired U.S. Marine
sergeant left behind a wife and 3-year-old twin girls.
Richardson,
who was linked to the shooting through DNA evidence left at the store,
was arrested on suspicion of murder Feb. 22, 2007, outside an Oceanside
parole office.
OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.