The alleged leader of an armed robbery crew charged with killing a New Zealand tourist last week outside Newport Beach’s Fashion Island mall had been placed on probation for stealing a Rolex at gunpoint in Santa Monica.
He avoided prison time in that case after Los Angeles County prosecutors agreed to a three-year suspended sentence, according to interviews and records reviewed by The Times.
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Leroy Ernest McCrary, 26, now faces a special circumstances murder charge that could carry the death penalty after authorities allege he ran over Patricia “Trish” McKay, 68, during a July 2 robbery attempt.
Orange County prosecutors say McCrary and two other men targeted McKay’s husband, former chair of the Bank of New Zealand Douglas McKay, for his high-end watch.
McCrary and the other defendants have not yet entered pleas, and their attorneys could not immediately be reached for comment.
The Fashion Island slaying is renewing interest in the 2022 Rolex theft.
Santa Monica Police Lt. Erika Aklufi said surveillance video in that case showed McCrary putting a handgun to the head of a man on Broadway. He and an accomplice demanded the man’s watch, she said.
McCrary’s DNA also was recovered from the victim’s shirt, which he’d grabbed during the robbery, police said.
Prosecutors charged McCrary, who had been arrested by L.A. police a month later, and Donta Baker with robbery in the Santa Monica case based on the DNA evidence, according to court records reviewed by The Times.
Before that, McCrary had been convicted in a 2020 case of making criminal threats, a felony.
Prosecutors agreed to a plea deal that spared him prison time in the Santa Monica case, court records show. McCrary pleaded no contest on April 26, 2023, to one count of robbery and was sentenced by Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Cathryn Brougham to three years. But Brougham suspended the sentence and placed McCrary on two years’ probation. She also ordered him to complete 200 hours of community service.
McCrary’s suspended sentence ran concurrent to another suspended sentence for a conviction for possessing a gun as a felon in a separate case the LAPD investigated.
They love the criminals, disdain the law-abiding, and despise the victims, pure and simple. Little will happen to this murderer. But try and defend yourself and you shall feel the full weight of their law on you.