Three Los Angeles County men accused of carrying out a deadly armed robbery at Fashion Island pleaded not guilty on Thursday, Aug. 1, to special circumstances murder charges for the slaying of a 68-year-old New Zealand woman who was dragged to her death under a getaway car at the upscale shopping center.
A defense attorney during a brief hearing in a Santa Ana courtroom entered not guilty pleas on behalf of Leroy Ernest Joseph McCrary, Malachi Eddward Darnell and Jaden Cunningham, all three of whom prosecutors allege were responsible for the death of Patricia McKay during the commission of a robbery.
The defendants — who watched the proceedings from a holding cell on the side of the courtroom — spoke only briefly during the hearing, when they confirmed to Orange County Superior Court Judge Michael J. Cassidy that they were agreeing to schedule their next court appearance on Oct. 11. All three are being held in county jail without bail.
The brazen, mid-day robbery attempt and killing has drawn national and international headlines and the concern of local residents. Newport Beach Mayor Will O’Neill was once again in attendance at Thursday’s arraignment, after telling reporters following an earlier hearing that he was there to represent the victim’s family and the community.
Three men are facing special circumstances murder charges after authorities allege they killed a tourist during a robbery attempt at the Fashion Island mall. Booking mugs from left, Malachi Darnell, Leroy McCrary and Jaden Cunningham. (Courtesy of OCDA’s office)
Around 3:30 p.m. on Tuesday, July 2, McKay and her husband were waiting to be picked up outside Fashion Island when a white Toyota Camry pulled up next to them and two masked me jumped out.
Prosecutors say one of the men put a gun to the head of McKay’s husband, forced him to the ground and demanded his watch. When the robbers were unable to get the timepiece one of them grabbed a shopping bag McKay was holding, prosecutors allege, knocking the woman down and dragging her into the roadway in the process.
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The getaway driver apparently ran over McKay and dragged her for 65 feet.
A Good Samaritan later described trying to stop one of the robbers from escaping, only to have another fire a gunshot at him. All three men were later arrested after a police pursuit.
Prosecutors have identified McCrary, 26, as the getaway driver who drove over McKay, Cunningham, 18, as the masked man who grabbed McKay’s shopping bag and dragged her in the roadway and Darnell, 18, as the other masked man who fired a gunshot at the Good Samaritan.
Defense attorneys for the three men have not publicly commented on the case or the prosecution’s allegations.
Since the men are charged with special circumstances murder, prosecutors will have to decide at some point whether to pursue life without the possibility of parole or the death penalty. Such a decision is made by the county’s top prosecutor — DA Todd Spitzer — generally much later in the court process, after internal deliberations among his senior prosecutors and managers and input from the defense attorneys.
McCrary, the suspected leader of the crew that carried out the Fashion Island robbery turned killing, previously dodged jail time for a similar armed robbery in Santa Monica.
In September 2022, Santa Monica police say McCrary and another man, both wearing masks and armed with handguns, confronted another man, demanded his Rolex watch and then fled in a waiting vehicle. DNA found on the victim’s shirt helped tie McCrary to the robbery, police say, and he was arrested in January 2023.
McCrary later agreed to a plea deal offered by Los Angeles prosecutors. In return for pleading no contest to a robbery charge, he was placed on two years’ probation, with a three year prison sentence suspended. As a result, the only time McCrary spent in lockup related to the Santa Monica robbery was five days in county jail following his arrest.
Officials with the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office have said they ran into “significant problems with proof” related to the Santa Monica robbery that led them to offer McCrary the plea deal. Witnesses were unable to identify the robbers, surveillance video didn’t capture their faces and the “preliminary” DNA tests that allegedly tied McCrary to the victim’s shirt were not admissible in court, Los Angeles DA officials said.
LA DA officials have said they are ready to support the Orange County prosecution if needed. But the fact that McCrary was free at the time of the Fashion Island killing has led OC DA Spitzer — a frequent critic of LA County’s top prosecutor, George Gascon — to once again criticize state leaders for what he has described as “soft-on-crime policies.”
