Two are charged in fatal shooting at L.A. Live
Two people face murder charges in a 2023 killing at a restaurant in the heart of the downtown L.A. Live complex.
Investigators believe Phillip Pasco Clark, 33, was the masked man who in November stormed into Fixins Soul Kitchen at Figueroa Street and Olympic Boulevard and gunned down Sidney Barrett Morris, 43, as he ate dinner.
Morris was an educator and the nephew of a Motown artist.
Clark “walked straight up to Mr. Morris and shot him in the back of the head,” Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. George Gascón said at a news conference Thursday.
Clark and Santana Kelly, 50, who helped plot the killing, police say, were arrested last week and charged with murder and conspiracy to commit murder, officials said. Both pleaded not guilty in a brief court appearance Tuesday. It was not immediately clear who their lawyers were.
Authorities declined on Thursday to discuss a motive in the shooting or to describe what, if any, relationship Morris had to the defendants.
The brash shooting was the first homicide recorded at L.A. Live, the sprawling complex that opened to the public in 2007 and houses nightclubs, concert venues, restaurants and the Crypto.com Arena, where the Lakers, Clippers and Kings play.
Police allege that Clark stormed into Fixins at 6:15 p.m. on Nov. 28. The popular eatery, which specializes in Southern food, is owned by Kevin Johnson, a onetime All-Star guard for the Phoenix Suns and the former mayor of Sacramento.
Morris was shot three times and pronounced dead at a hospital a short time later, according to an autopsy report. A second victim was also struck and suffered a graze wound, police said.
Clark fled in a vehicle that was driven by an unknown third party, officials allege. A criminal complaint accuses Kelly of burning the vehicle the next day in Lancaster.
About a week before the attack, Kelly surveilled Morris at his “place of business” in the 1100 block of South Hope Street in downtown L.A., according to the complaint, which doesn’t say what work Morris did at the loft building at the given address.
Prosecutors said Kelly also aided in the slaying by providing Clark with the getaway car, a white Ford Escape, and with two hats to obscure the shooter and driver.
It is not clear whether a weapon has been recovered.
Police arrested Kelly on March 22 in Palmdale and apprehended Clark in South L.A., according to Capt. Scot Williams, head of the Los Angeles Police Department’s Robbery-Homicide Division.
Williams would not say how the two knew each other — only that they were “acquaintances.” He said both were documented gang members but would not say what gangs they were allegedly in.
Clark pleaded guilty to illegal firearms possession in 2020 and was placed on probation for two years, according to court records. He also had prior convictions for robbery and burglary, the complaint said.
Kelly was arrested in 2020 on suspicion of possession of narcotics with intent to sell, but the case was dismissed due to failure to bring it to a speedy trial. In 2001, he was charged with robbery, assault and evading police; those charges were dismissed when a judge reversed a decision to hold him for trial. He was convicted of robbery and assault with a deadly weapon in Orange County in 1991, according to the complaint.
Both defendants are due back in court April 25.
Morris worked in higher education for around two decades, most recently as equity and diversity coordinator at Cal State Northridge, which hired him in 2019. Gascón said Morris had been studying at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, to become a lawyer.
Born in Michigan, the L.A. resident was the nephew of the late Motown singer Barrett Strong, who cowrote beloved tracks that include “I Heard It Through the Grapevine” and “Papa Was a Rollin’ Stone,” according to an article on CSUN’s website.