One of three men charged with the shooting death of a year-old girl, who was struck by gunfire while she was asleep in her crib in Compton, pleaded not guilty today.
Ronzay Deshon Richards, 25, is charged with murder in the Feb. 9, 2016, slaying of Autumn Johnson, along with one count of attempted murder.
The baby was shot in the face after the driver of a blue, four-door Chevrolet Impala stopped in front of the converted garage where her family was living, and a man got out and opened fire. Authorities said last year that they believed the shooting was gang-related.
Richards was arrested Wednesday by Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies and is being held in lieu of $4 million bail. Co-defendants Davion Ramal Douglas, 27, and Denzell Davon Hull, 25, are in state prison on an unrelated burglary case and are scheduled to be arraigned Oct. 13 on the same counts, along with one count each of possession of a firearm by a felon.
Hull is also facing one count each of attempted murder and shooting at an occupied motor vehicle on March 26, 2016. A fourth man, Ray Howard Patterson Jr., 24, is charged with being an accessory after the fact to murder.
Patterson was arrested last year in connection with the shooting, but he was released from jail after the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office asked the sheriff’s department to conduct further investigation into the shooting. He is in a Nevada state prison on an unrelated weapons count, and is also set to be arraigned next week, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.
The charges were filed following an investigation by detectives from the sheriff’s homicide and Compton Operation Safe Streets offices.
The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, the city of Compton and the FBI had offered a $75,000 reward leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible for the girl’s shooting death.
