SIMI VALLEY : Killer Sentenced After Apologizing

After making a tearful apology to the mother of the man he killed, a Littlerock man was sentenced Monday to 17 years to life in prison.

Anthony Adams, 28, was sentenced in Ventura County Superior Court for the murder of Christopher Landry, 21, of Woodland Hills, whose skull was found in a remote Simi Valley canyon more than six years after he was reported missing.

“I just want his mother to know that ever since this happened I have thought about it inside,” Adams said. “I truly am sorry.”

Adams and another man, Alan Abraham, 30, of Oceanside, were charged with first-degree murder in December, two months after Landry’s skull was found off Black Canyon Road. According to trial testimony, Landry was shot to death after he pressured the pair to deliver cocaine that his roommate had paid for.

Last month, a jury found Adams guilty of second-degree murder. Deputy Dist. Atty. Peter D. Kossoris, who won the conviction against Adams, will prosecute Abraham in a separate trial in June.

The mother of the victim, Beverly Landry, cried as she addressed Judge Lawrence Storch before he imposed the sentence. “Nobody’s going to be there for me on birthdays, Mother’s Day or holidays,” she said. However, she said, “I forgive him. There’s room on the Cross for one more and I hope it’s him.”

Adams’ attorney, James M. Epstein, urged Storch to reduce the conviction to manslaughter, which would have resulted in a maximum sentence of 11 years.

Storch refused. “Your client got every benefit in the jury’s verdict,” the judge said. “He could have been convicted of first-degree murder.” Two years were added to the statutory 15-years-to-life sentence because of Adams’ use of a firearm in the crime.