Santa Clarita / Antelope Valley : 2 Sentenced in Slaying Over $80 Debt

LANCASTER —  Two reputed members of an Antelope Valley methamphetamine distribution ring were sentenced to 15 years-to-life in prison Monday for second-degree murder in the 1992 shooting death of an associate who was killed because he owed the pair $80.

Lancaster Superior Court Judge Thomas Stoever rejected a last-minute bid by the defendants--James D. Tindell of Lancaster and David W. Frans of Quartz Hill--to withdraw the guilty pleas they had entered earlier this month and go to trial.

The two men, both 28, were alleged to have abducted Darwin C. Cummings, 28, from a Lancaster residence in March, 1992, then shot him twice in the head and dumped his body in a remote field east of the city.

Authorities said the pair had used duct tape to gag Cummings and to tie his wrists. His decomposing body was found by a man scavenging for cans in the desert.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Robert Foltz, the prosecutor in the case, described the pair as “a couple of small-time gangsters who were trying to make a name for themselves in the Antelope Valley as real bad guys.” He predicted that they will serve 15 to 20 years of their sentences.

Had they been convicted of first-degree murder, the two men faced a fixed sentence of life in prison.

Foltz described Cummings as a transient and drug user who worked with the defendants in their drug dealings. Cummings also was an escapee from a Van Nuys halfway house where he had been sent by state prison officials.

Before sentencing, both men asked the judge to withdraw their pleas, with Tindell contending that their defense attorneys had mishandled the case. But Stoever ruled the two did not show any legal cause to justify the request.

Prosecutors earlier this month accepted their plea to the second-degree charge, noting that the murder weapon was never recovered and that the evidence was largely circumstantial.

Both men, who remained in custody since their arrest, had extensive criminal records, including convictions on drug and weapons charges, according to county probation reports.

Tindell, who had the longer record, had earlier violated his probation after a County Jail sentence, as well as his parole after a state prison sentence.

“Defendant’s life consists of being in prison, selling drugs, and committing acts of violence,” his probation officer wrote.

Frans had been a Marine before being dishonorably discharged in 1986 for reasons that were not specified in his probation report. Both men had occasionally done construction work in the Antelope Valley, their probation reports said.

Stoever also sentenced the two men on lesser charges, unrelated to the murder, but ruled that they could serve that time concurrent with their murder sentences.