Damian Monroe Football Williams

At the intersection of Florence and Normandie, where television cameras caught the violent early moments of the Los Angeles riots, the 8-Trey Gangster Crips have established their stronghold. From this corner, where trucker Reginald O. Denny was brutally beaten, the loose affiliation of about 350 gang members claims an impoverished territory that runs roughly from Gage Avenue on the North to Manchester Avenue on the South and from Van Ness Avenue on the West to Vermont Avenue on the East.

Damian Williams, the man convicted of beating trucker Reginald Denny with a brick during the 1992 Los Angeles riots, was sentenced to 30 years to life in prison Friday for the killing of a man in a drug house eight years later. Williams, 30, who served four years in prison for the televised beating of Denny, returned to Los Angeles County Superior Court on Friday for sentencing in the shooting of Grover Tinner, 43. In addition to the 30-plus years for murder, Judge Curtis B.

The mother of Damian Monroe (Football) Williams said Tuesday she has fired attorney Dennis Palmieri and hired Anaheim attorney Edi M.O. Faal, but said the change was unrelated to questions raised last week about Palmieri's stability. Georgiana Williams said the decision was based on her judgment that Faal "is the best."

Damian "Football" Williams, who was imprisoned for four years for beating truck driver Reginald Denny during the 1992 riots, was convicted Friday of second-degree murder. Williams faces a maximum of 35 years to life in prison when he is sentenced June 13. In a written statement, Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley called it a "long and difficult case," but said he was "gratified that the jury carefully and fully reviewed the evidence in reaching its verdicts."

Dennis Palmieri, who has represented a main defendant charged in the April 29 attacks on motorists at Florence and Normandie avenues, Friday accused his former law firm of slandering him and subverting his efforts in court. Until last week, Palmieri worked for the Center for Constitutional Law and Justice, but he was fired on the final day of a preliminary hearing for three suspects, including Damian Monroe (Football) Williams, whom Palmieri represented.

James R. Gillen, a lawyer for one of three men charged with attacking motorists during the opening hours of the rioting in Los Angeles, filed an appeal Tuesday seeking to have a white judge removed from the case. Defense lawyers normally are allowed only one peremptory challenge to remove a judge, and they have used up their opportunity by removing another jurist.

In the midst of Tuesday's preliminary hearings for the three defendants charged with attacking motorists at Normandie and Florence avenues, the lead lawyer for Damian Monroe (Football) Williams, the main defendant, was abruptly fired by his law firm. The Center for Constitutional Law and Justice said it had fired Dennis Palmieri after a review of his work and resume. Judge Larry P.

One of the suspects accused of beating truck driver Reginald O. Denny was sentenced Monday to two years in state prison for an unrelated probation violation, and another was being held in a jail psychiatric ward for observation. Henry Keith (Kiki) Watson, 27, has been charged with attacking Denny and four other people at Florence and Normandie avenues on April 29, a few hours after the not guilty verdicts were handed down in the Rodney G. King beating case.

An attorney for Damian Monroe (Football) Williams charged Monday that his client was coerced into making a statement to police that implicated him in the April 29 attack on truck driver Reginald O. Denny at the outset of the Los Angeles riots. "Incriminating statements were obtained from the defendant during a constitutionally invalid interrogation where the defendant was coerced into making statements involuntarily," Dennis Palmieri wrote in a motion filed with the court.

Three men accused of beating truck driver Reginald O. Denny and other motorists during the opening hours of the Los Angeles riots pleaded not guilty in Superior Court on Tuesday, and one of their lawyers accused the district attorney's office of removing the assigned trial judge because he is black. "Obviously, the district attorney does not want a black judge on this case," said James R. Gillen, a lawyer for defendant Antoine Eugene Miller. "They say it wasn't a racial issue. We say it was."

Damian "Football" Williams, who spent four years in jail for attacking trucker Reginald Denny during the 1992 riots, was charged Friday in a Southwest Los Angeles murder. Williams, 27, could face the death penalty for the July 18 shooting. In a 11-page felony complaint, prosecutors said Williams and Tyrone David "T" Killingsworth, a 34-year-old with convictions for bank robbery and forcible rape, killed 43-year-old Grove Tinner at a West Gage Avenue drug house.

A coalition of African American religious and community leaders called Monday for the release of Damian Monroe Williams, a key figure in the 1992 riots, who has been held in jail for two weeks since his arrest on suspicion of murder. "He is innocent," Najee Ali, director of Project Islamic H.O.P.E., said at a news conference. "They have not charged him because they don't have enough evidence."

Damian Monroe Williams, who served four years in prison for attacking truck driver Reginald Denny during the 1992 Los Angeles riots, "absolutely denies that he had anything to do with" a shooting death in South-Central Los Angeles earlier this week, his lawyer said Thursday. The attorney, Dean Masserman, said at a news conference outside the Men's Central Jail where Williams, 27, is being held that what he has learned of an eyewitness account leaves him confident that Williams will be cleared.

Damian Monroe Williams, whose televised attack on truck driver Reginald Denny came to symbolize the fury of the 1992 Los Angeles riots, was arrested Wednesday on suspicion of killing a man whose body was found in an alley in central Los Angeles. Police said Grover Tinner, 43, was shot to death after a dispute with Williams "at a house used by people selling and using narcotics."

A state appeals court Tuesday unanimously upheld the 1993 mayhem and assault convictions of one of the primary assailants of truck driver Reginald O. Denny, whose televised beating came to symbolize the fury of the 1992 Los Angeles riots. The three-judge panel rejected the claims of Damian Monroe Williams that the court prejudiced his case by, among other things, limiting his ability to cross-examine some witnesses and dismissing an African American juror.

Damian Williams, serving a 10-year sentence in connection with the Reginald O. Denny beating, took the stand briefly Monday in the trial of the man accused of shooting at the trucker's big rig. Deputy Dist. Atty. Kevin McCormick called Williams, 21, as a prosecution witness in the trial of Lance Parker. Williams supposedly implicated Parker in a tape-recorded confession to police.

Attorneys for the three men charged in the April 29 attack on Reginald O. Denny sparred with prosecutors Monday over the use of the term gang members to characterize their clients, and referred to Los Angeles Police as "the gang that couldn't think straight."

Relatives of two suspects arrested in connection with the April 29 beating of truck driver Reginald O. Denny complained Saturday that the young men charged in that attack are being unfairly denied bail. "This is the kind of stuff that creates more hatred and more violence," said Joyce Watson, the mother of Henry Keith Watson, one of four men arrested last week in pre-dawn raids by FBI agents and the Los Angeles Police Department. "We can't understand this."

"I asked that the video be shown to emphasize the actual facts and the underlying events that underlie each of the convictions relating to each of the victims for which the defendant Williams stands convicted. "First, the seriousness and the circumstances of each and every one of these crimes was great due to the senseless serious physical and/or emotional injuries suffered by each victim of the defendant's assaultive conduct. "Second, in the case of Ms. Maldonado, Mr. Lopez and Mr.

"Power to the people. Mark your calendar and see how long he stays in there. I'm going to fast and pray." --Georgiana Williams, Damian Williams' mother * "Mr. Williams will serve only about four years and will come out (of prison) the same way you saw him, with a big smile on his face and waving to his friends and family. In our opinion, Mr. Williams deserves 10 years of actual time."