Killer Pleads Guilty to Avoid Death Sentence : Crime: Aleshia M. Harrell will return to Torrance court Oct. 6 for sentencing to life in prison without parole.

By JANET RAE-DUPREE

Sept. 24, 1992 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

A Los Angeles woman has pleaded guilty to murdering a Gardena man in front of his wife and daughter and later using the same gun to murder a second man.

Aleshia M. Harrell, 20, entered the plea to avoid a possible death sentence, defense attorney Regina Laughney said. Under terms of a plea agreement, Harrell will be sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole when she returns to Torrance Superior Court on Oct. 6.

Harrell pleaded guilty to first-degree murder, admitting that she forced her way into Terry Kageyama’s car Oct. 19, 1991, as Kageyama, his wife and 3-year-old daughter prepared to leave a market in the 15200 block of south Western Avenue in Gardena.

Harrell, demanding a ride, pointed a gun at the family and ordered Kageyama to resume driving. He did, but soon slowed enough for his wife and daughter to jump from the car.

Moments after they escaped, Kageyama’s wife saw Harrell fire the shots that killed her husband.

Less than three hours later, Harrell admitted, she gunned down Orvel Jernigan, 31, of Mar Vista during a robbery.

“We don’t know that much about (the circumstances of) the Jernigan murder,” Sitkoff said. “We can’t really speculate about exactly what happened . . . but the ballistics tests and the property of the victim found in (Harrell’s) apartment link her solidly to it.”

If a jury had convicted her of the robbery and murders, Harrell could have been sentenced to death, Sitkoff said.

“We were approached by the defense with this offer . . . and I assume she didn’t want to take the chance of being sentenced to death,” Sitkoff said. “It really gives a closure to the case for the victims’ families . . . the kind of closure that may not have come for years if this had been dragged out.”

Laughney said Harrell also wanted to conclude the case.

“She’s very resigned,” Laughney said. “She knows that she’ll be in prison for the rest of her life . . . Most definitely she has remorse, and most definitely she feels sympathy for the families (of the victims).”

Harrell plans to prepare a written statement about her feelings for presentation to the court Oct. 6, Laughney said.

Harrell was arrested three days after the killings when detectives responding to an anonymous tip searched her apartment and found credit cards and other belongings of the two victims, as well as the gun used in both murders.

“It really is a very sad case . . . for these families,” Sitkoff said. “Nothing will bring back their brother or their son or their husband. . . . But she will have ample time for the next 40 or 60 years to rot her days in prison thinking about these terrible acts she’s committed.”