Man’s Conviction Upheld for Pasadena Slaying

A state appeals court panel Wednesday upheld a man’s conviction for killing a jewelry salesman at a Pasadena gas station more than three decades ago.

Albert Ahmad Clark was found guilty in November 2017 of first-degree murder for the Feb. 27, 1988, slaying of 39-year-old Leroy Galloway and is serving a 32-year-to-life state prison sentence.

The victim was shot multiple times near Lake Avenue and Orange Grove Boulevard, where he was selling jewelry out of his van.

The three-justice panel from California’s 2nd District Court of Appeal upheld the defendant’s conviction but ordered the case to be sent back to Pasadena Superior Court Judge Stan Blumenfeld to exercise his discretion on whether to strike or dismiss a five-year enhancement in light of a new state law that was enacted after Clark was sentenced.

“We of course express no opinion on how the court should rule,” the appellate court panel noted in its six-page ruling.

Witnesses said shortly after the killing that they saw a suspect fleeing the area, and, based in part on the descriptions they provided, investigators eventually arrested Clark. But there was insufficient evidence to prosecute him because of the “limitations of forensic science at the time,” police said.

Galloway’s relatives approached Pasadena police in 2013 and asked them to review the case. Investigators were able to retrieve evidence that was analyzed and implicated Clark in the killing, police said.

Clark was arrested on Dec. 7, 2015, in Los Angeles and was charged two days later with murder.

He was listed as a client in Galloway’s business documents, according to the appellate court panel’s ruling.

DNA testing determined that a pair of gray slacks discovered in an open locker at a nearby apartment contained blood matching the victim’s DNA, and that DNA found inside the waistband of the slacks matched Clark, according to the ruling.