UPDATED, JULY 22, 12:40 P.M.: Today in a Santa Ana courtroom, Gary A. Shawkey received his sentence for murdering a 71-year-old business partner in 2008: life in prison without the chance for parole. The victim was last seen on a boat with Shawkey, leaving Dana Point Harbor. It is believed Shawkey killed Robert Vendrick and disposed of his body by dumping it into the ocean. More details of the troubling case are in the original post below.
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His trek finally ended Tuesday in a Santa Ana courtroom, where a jury found Shawkey guilty of murdering his 71-year-old partner and dumping the Phoenix retiree's body somewhere in the sea off Dana Point.
Indeed, by the waning days of their relationship, Vendrick was talking of pulling out all his investments when Mechanicsville,
VA's Shawkey engineered one more scam involving the development of top-secret computer software for the federal
government. After wiring Shawkey $100,000, Vendrick flew into Orange County to board a 23-foot sailboat his partner purchased for a trip from Dana Point Harbor to San Clemente Island, where federal agents would finalize the deal.
It was another lie, but the last one Vendrick would hear as he was never seen or heard from again.
Shawkey was jailed in Virginia on an unrelated theft charge in February 2009 when authorities there discovered murder charges had been filed against him in Orange County. He was extradited here the following month and has been behind bars ever since. And he may remain locked up the rest of his life after his sentencing scheduled for July 22 in Santa Ana.
The jury found Shawkey guilty of one felony count of special
circumstances murder for financial gain, one felony count of grand
theft, and a sentencing enhancement for stealing over $200,000.
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.