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Two men convicted of the execution-style murder of a medical marijuana dispensary employee and the attempted murder of a security guard were sentenced on Friday, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office announced.
Deputy District Attorney Stacy Okun-Wiese of the Major Crimes Division said Raymond Lemone Easter, 31, and Daniel Deshawn Hinton, 35, were each sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Hinton and Easter were convicted on Nov. 19, 2013, of one count of first-degree murder with a special circumstance allegation of murder during the course of a robbery. The men also were convicted of one count of attempted murder.
On June 24, 2010, the defendants forced their way into the Higher Path Medical Marijuana Dispensary near Downtown Los Angeles. At the time of the robbery, Matthew Butcher, 27, and the security guard were the only two employees at the dispensary.
Butcher’s mother Julie is a major labor union leader in Los Angeles.
The armed defendants removed the dispensary’s security cameras, computer hard drive, cash and several pounds of marijuana with an estimated value of $10,000. The men left the dispensary but Easter returned and shot both victims in the head as they lay face down on the floor.
The case was investigated by the Los Angeles Police Department.
