A jury convicted a 27-year-old man on Oct. 29 of murder and robbery for the deaths of a Los Feliz District gas station clerk and an employee at a Westside medical marijuana dispensary.

A defendant was recently convicted of a murder and robbery that occurred at a gas station at Los Feliz Boulevard and Vermont Avenue. (photo by Edwin Folven)

Kayshon Moody faces life in prison without parole when he returns for sentencing on Nov. 15. He was found guilty of two counts of first-degree murder and three counts of second-degree robbery. Deputy District Attorney Beth Silverman said the convictions cap a long investigation and trial that resulted from very serious crimes.

“This guy had a citywide crime spree going in which he killed people and terrorized people,” Silverman said.

The crime spree started during the early morning hours of Jan. 17, 2017, when Moody robbed an employee at a fast food restaurant in West Los Angeles. He fled, and at approximately 3:35 a.m. entered a Chevron gas station at the corner of Los Feliz Boulevard and Vermont avenue and shot a clerk, Mohammed Rahman, during another robbery. Moody then robbed a small grocery store in Glendale later on Jan. 17, 2017.

The crime spree continued the following day when Moody robbed a medical marijuana dispensary in the 12400 block of Venice Boulevard in Mar Vista and shot and killed an employee. That victim, Ovik Oganesyan, died at the scene.

Det. Sid Rodriguez, of the Los Angeles Police Department’s Northeast Division, said forensic evidence and security camera footage led them to Moody and an accomplice, James Eastland, who was only implicated in the Glendale and Mar Vista crimes. Eastman became a witness for the prosecution after arranging a plea agreement with prosecutors that will result in a 40-year to life sentence. Moody fired the shots in both murders.

Rodriguez said one of the suspects dropped a baseball cap at the robbery in Glendale. Silverman added that testing identified DNA on it belonging to both Moody and Eastland.

With the DNA evidence and photographs, detectives used security camera footage from the robberies and murders at the gas station and dispensary to identify the suspects as being involved in those crimes, as well as Moody in the robbery at the fast food restaurant. Rodriguez said detectives sent surveillance units on Jan. 20, 2017, to Moody’s address in West Los Angeles, where they found him packing belongings into a vehicle. Moody was arrested and officers found a gun in the vehicle. Testing determined that gun fired the shots that killed the two victims, Rodriguez said. Eastland was arrested on Jan. 23, 2017, at an undisclosed location.

Rodriguez said Moody was originally from California’s Central Valley and he did not know when the defendant moved to Los Angeles. He said the crimes occurred in neighborhoods where Moody either currently or formerly lived, and police surmised they were familiar locations to him. The motives in each crime was robbery. The detective said he was glad to see the case result in convictions and credited the Glendale Police Department for help in identifying the suspects through DNA.

“Obviously, it’s good for the community and the family to get justice, but it won’t bring the victims back,” Rodriguez said. “Hopefully, this guy won’t see the light of day again.”