SAN DIEGO (KGTV) - An ex-con who was part of a group of armed intruders looking for drugs and money at a San Carlos home, triggering a scuffle and the fatal shooting of a resident, was sentenced Friday to 159 years to life in prison.
Elliott Grizzle, 46, was convicted in March of first-degree murder, robbery and burglary. The defendant has a lengthy criminal record, including a 2015 conviction for voluntary manslaughter, prosecutors said.
Besides 33-year-old Brent Adler, who was fatally shot, two other men in the home on Tommy Drive were terrorized by the intruders for more than an hour during the May 11, 2016, crime spree, Judge Laura Halgren said.
The fact that a firearm was involved increases the danger that someone could be killed, the judge said.
"The penalties are severe, and appropriately so," the judge noted.
Defense attorney Kevin McNamara said Grizzle didn't have a major role in the crime and asked Halgren not to hand down consecutive sentences for each count, as prosecutors had outlined.
"With a term of that length, he's probably going to die in prison," McNamara said.
Deputy District Attorney Amy Maund said Grizzle and two or three others broke into the home in broad daylight, demanding money and marijuana.
The prosecutor said the intruders tied up, robbed and blindfolded two of Adler's roommates, then shot the victim when he arrived home after 2:30 p.m. The person who fired the fatal shot has not been identified and the investigation is ongoing, Maund said.
Two other men, Lawrence Johnson Jr., 28, and Toren Nieber, 32, were convicted earlier this month of the same charges as Grizzle and will be sentenced later. Nieber faces 82 years to life in prison, while Johnson faces 42 years to life behind bars, according to prosecutors.
After court Adler’s father, Mitch, told 10News he hopes the family can now find “some kind of closure, whatever that really means. I don’t know, for sure but it’ll be ... I hope.. down the road.”
