Guard’s Killer Gets 48 Years to Life

A man who a judge said showed “not one single molecule of remorse” after shooting an Inglewood supermarket security guard to death was sentenced Thursday to 48 years and eight months to life in state prison.

Clarence Young, 49, watched stone-faced as Torrance Superior Court Judge John P. Shook sentenced him to the maximum term. Young will be 80 before he is eligible for parole.

A jury convicted Young last month of murdering security guard Robert Pennamon on July 30, 1987, as Pennamon and his employer, Brothers Market owner Seyed Hosseini, returned from a trip to the bank.

A gunman wearing a ski mask shot Pennamon in the head and back as he stepped from his car, witnesses testified. The gunman, who was accompanied by at least two other people wearing ski masks, also fired at Hosseini, who was not injured.

The group took $2,100 from the car and fled in a van. Inglewood police spotted the van shortly after the robbery and began to pursue it. Police testified during Young’s trial that the van stopped suddenly and Young jumped out, fired a shot at a police officer as he sat in his squad car and fired at another officer during a foot pursuit.

The second officer shot Young in the leg and arrested him. His accomplices were never caught.

A probation report said Young has several other convictions on his record, dating to 1962. At the time of the Inglewood incident, Young was being sought by police for failing to return to prison after a work furlough.