Crime & Safety
Two Convicted of Murdering Echo Park Marijuana Clinic Employee
The two mean shot an employee to death and wounded a security guard during a robbery of an Echo Park marijuana clinic in 2010.
Two men were convicted Tuesday in the shooting death of an employee and the wounding of a security guard during a robbery at a medical marijuana clinic in Echo Park.
Raymond Lemone Easter, 30, and Daniel Hinton, 35, were found guilty of first-degree murder in the death of Matthew Butcher, 27, along with the attempted murder of a security guard who was shot in the head during the June 24, 2010, heist at the Higher Path Holistic Care Collective in the 1300 block of West Sunset Boulevard.
Jurors also found true the special circumstance allegation that the murder occurred during the commission of a robbery, along with an allegation that Easter personally discharged a gun.
Thousands of dollars in cash and thousands of dollars worth of marijuana were taken in the robbery, along with security camera footage, two computer towers containing patient records and a majority of the paper files on patients, according to Deputy District Attorney Deborah Brazil.
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Easter and Hinton -- who were both patients at the clinic near Dodger Stadium -- were arrested later that year. The two are facing life in prison without the possibility of parole, with sentencing set for Jan. 10.
A third man involved in the heist has not been identified.
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