VAN NUYS : Pair Charged in Holdup Slaying

Two alleged accomplices of a former Glendale High School football player who was shot and killed last week by an off-duty sheriff’s deputy during a foiled robbery attempt were charged Tuesday with murder and conspiracy to commit a robbery.

Deputy Dist. Atty. James A. Baker said that Abel Tianti Cason, 18, and Ian Jerde, 19, both of Glendale, were charged with murder under the legal theory that they should have known that an armed robbery could lead to someone’s death.

Both men pleaded not guilty, and a preliminary hearing was set for Dec. 1 in Van Nuys Municipal Court. A third man, Andrew Wright, 18, was with the other men during the robbery attempt but was not charged.

Shawn Cole, 17, who was Glendale High’s leading rusher this season before being dismissed from the team last month because of academic problems, was shot early Friday morning when he tried to rob rookie sheriff’s Deputy Robert Carr, 22. Carr, who was not in uniform, had just parked his car on the street near his home on Norwich Avenue in Van Nuys.

According to police, two of the youths got out of the car and Cole, armed with a BB gun resembling a .45-caliber or 9 millimeter semiautomatic pistol, went up to Carr and demanded money. Carr then drew his weapon and fired three times at Cole.

Cole died at Sherman Oaks Hospital and Health Center about an hour later.