Horn Escapes Death Penalty in Triple Murder: [FINAL Edition]!

Lawrence T. was sentenced to life in prison today for masterminding the triple murder that a Detroit man
last year was sentenced to death for carrying out.!

Horn, 56, heard the sentence without evident emotion, then took his seat and turned to look at his 21year-old daughter, Tiffani, who he had made certain was not at the Silver Spring home on the March 1993
night that hit man James Edward Perry executed her mother, Mildred, her disabled brother, Trevor, and
Trevor's nurse, Janice Roberts Saunders. After the murders, Horn stood to inherit 8-year-old Trevor's
million-dollar estate.!

"I hate you," Tiffani Horn said through tears, meeting her father's searching gaze for the first time in the
six-week trial. "I hate you. I hate you so much. You killed my family."!

Horn's face crumpled. He removed his glasses, wiped away tears, then shook his head.!

"I hate you," Tiffani Horn repeated again and again, once with an epithet, as an uncle led her from the
gallery. Across the courtroom, Horn turned, red-eyed, from the deputies leading him to a holding cell, still
shaking his head.!

Death penalty opponents seized on the sentence as a "classic example" of the inequities they say
inevitably arise in applying capital punishment. They said the inconsistencies are especially stark in
contract murder cases, because different juries can have divergent views of the plotters based on their
criminal records, their education and their levels of achievement.!

Outside the courtroom, relatives expressed bitter dismay at Horn's sentence of life without parole, which
came after nine hours of deliberation.!

"It gives us no peace, no peace at all," said Gloria Maree, one of several of Mildred Horn's siblings who
faithfully attended the trials of both Perry and Horn and who marched out of the courtroom as the life
sentence was read.!

"The evil that's in this man will live on. It doesn't matter where he lives. . . . We were looking for a decision
that would still Lawrence Horn's mind," Maree said.!

But two jurors said in interviews that they felt there had been enough killing. "My gracious, there's so
much death involved already and so much grief, you don't want to keep piling it up," said juror Richard C.
Bowers, a retired insurance agent.!

"The number of people that were already hurt was tremendous," said Julius Breczinski, also retired. "I
didn't feel that the death penalty would assuage all those people. I felt it would add pain to a lot of them."!

The panel agreed that an assortment of "mitigating circumstances" outweighed the only official
"aggravator" in the case, contract murder.!

The jurors took into account the lack of violent crime in Horn's record, the only applicable "official"
mitigating factor. A majority of the panel then agreed to recognize three unofficial mitigating factors, based
on the testimony of character witnesses the defense called this week.!

The witnesses included Horn's relatives, friends and former colleagues from Motown Records, one of
whom said Stevie Wonder particularly valued Horn's abilities as a sound engineer. An executive with
Holland Productions, another music company where Horn worked, recalled a recording session in which
Donny and Marie Osmond embraced his advice.!

"The defendant has skills and abilities that he is likely to use in the future to benefit others," the jurors
wrote. They also cited Horn's "history of demonstrated kindness to some family, friends and co-workers."!

The jurors' fourth mitigating factor dumbfounded survivors: "Consideration of the effect of the maximum
sentence on Tiffani and Tamielle."!

Tamielle is the twin sister of Trevor Horn, whom Perry was hired to smother so their father could inherit a
$1.7 million malpractice settlement. The settlement was meant to cover Trevor's medical expenses after a
hospital incident left him severely retarded and quadriplegic. Prosecutors said Horn took pains to assure
that the younger daughter, like Tiffani, was out of the house on the night of the killings.!

"I feel that he should be on death row," said Tiffani Horn, who twice testified for the prosecution. "He
knows how I feel, and he'll always know. And he'll die knowing."!

Jurors said they suspected that her feelings may change later in life.!

"We felt at this time that she probably would be mad at the decision," Breczinski said. "Whether that's
faulty judgment or not. . . . "!

Defense attorney Jeffrey O'Toole, who in closing remarks suggested 14 possible mitigating factors, said
Horn was relieved and "grateful to the jury, as we are."!

"In a case like this," O'Toole said, "there's no winner, only losers."!

Prosecutors said they were only a little disappointed by the coda of a case marked by exceptionally
thorough police work and a virtually flawless presentation in two marathon trials.!

"We respect whatever a jury does in these extremely difficult circumstances," said Montgomery Deputy
State's Attorney Robert Dean, who with prosecutor Teresa Whalen also prosecuted Perry.!

"Obviously the dynamics of the jury had to be different," Dean said. "The legislature has produced this
individualized process. We are disappointed only to the extent of that disparity."!

Death penalty opponents insisted that the difference in sentences is typical.!

Perry had entered the penalty phase of his trial facing one more official aggravating circumstance than
Horn did, and because Perry had served prison time for shooting a Michigan police officer, he had one
less statutory mitigating factor.!

But Perry's attorney found great significance in the contrasting backgrounds of two African American men
whom separate juries called co-conspirators.!

Horn grew up in middle-class Detroit, attended a magnet high school, was a disc jockey in the Navy and
spent most of his career at Motown. His 17 character witnesses included an accountant, a lawyer, an
engineer and the brothers Edward and Brian Holland, who wrote hit songs for the Supremes, the Four
Tops and the Temptations. O'Toole said the defense seriously considered calling Stevie Wonder to the
stand.!

At Perry's trial, only three witnesses pleaded for mercy: his oldest son, a longtime girlfriend and his
unemployed younger brother. None was well educated, and Perry's attorney, Roger W. Galvin, said each
was more earnest than articulate.!

"I'm no fan of the death penalty, and this is just one of the reasons," said Montgomery State's Attorney
Andrew L. Sonner, who as a prosecutor asks for death only in "extreme cases," such as the one involving
Horn and Perry.!

Sonner said that although neither defendant testified in his own defense, Horn "was obviously more
refined. That's one of the problems with the death penalty. You end up executing the poor, the
deprived . . . a lot of human flotsam.!

"Here's Perry, one of life's losers. And on the other hand, Horn, obviously intelligent, well spoken. That
does concern me."!

Venue further complicates the picture. Perry was the first person sentenced to death in Montgomery in 14
years. A jury in Frederick County, where Horn's trial landed after he exercised his right to move the capital
case out of the original jurisdiction, was considered more likely to impose a death sentence, said
Frederick County State's Attorney Scott L. Rolle.!

But when the jury retired Wednesday night, it was split about evenly, jurors said.!

"You could find, if you looked, plenty of people involved in murders for hire where no one got the death
penalty," said Stephen B. Bright, director of the Southern Center for Human Rights in Atlanta and a death
penalty opponent.!

He recalled one former client, Larry Eugene Heath, who was executed in Atlanta four years ago for
ordering the contract killing of his wife. The two men who actually carried out the killing were given long
prison terms.!

Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz called the Horn outcome more orthodox.!

"The hit man usually has a long record, where, for the contracting party, it's normally the first offense," he
said. "The rationale for {jurors} is that for the contract person, it's a crime of passion. For the hit man, he's
in it for the business.!

Credit: Washington Post Staff Writer!

Word count: 1357!
Copyright The Washington Post Company May 17, 1996!