By LAMECH JOHNSON
Tribune Staff Reporter
ljohnson@tribunemedia.net
THE appeal hearing of a man contesting a double murder conviction is expected to proceed next month with all outstanding transcripts from his Supreme Court trial now available.
Jamal Armbrister, who was convicted of the 2007 shooting deaths of Emico Russell and Sherwin Miller Jr, will now return to the Court of Appeal on October 23 for his substantive hearing.
He and another acused, Jacob Woodside, are also appealing an armed robbery conviction and 12-year sentence stemming from that incident.
Armbrister was unanimously convicted on retrial in November 2012.
Armbrister and Woodside were accused of shooting and killing Russell at the club. It was also alleged that Armbrister fatally shot Sherwin Miller Jr in the head shortly after Russell’s murder.
Woodside was unanimously acquitted by the jury of murder.
Evidence in this third trial reveals that a man wearing a grey hoodie put a semi-automatic weapon, a TEC-9, to the chest of a security guard at the entrance to the Fantasy Lounge in Palmdale. The guard was ordered upstairs with the gun pressed to his back.
The gunman and security guard were joined by another man as they made their way to the second gate entrance. When Russell appeared, the hooded man holding the gun shot him.
Miller appeared on the scene a short time later and was shot twice in the head.
Armbrister’s appeal is being argued by lawyer Jiaram Mangra while Woodside is represented by Jerone Roberts.
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