Man sentenced for killings during rash of robberies in 2011

A man was sentenced June 8 to two consecutive life terms without the possibility of parole for killing two people during two weeks of robberies in 2011, according to the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office. 

On March 11, Jabaar Vincent Thomas, 31, was found guilty of the first-degree murders of Gabriel Aron Ben-Meir and Marcelo Aragon. 

Aragon was killed April 30, 2011, in front of a residence in Los Angeles' Pico-Union neighborhood, prosecutors said. About a week later, on May 8, Ben-Meir, an MTV music coordinator, was killed as he returned from grocery shopping in Mid-Wilshire, prosecutors added. 

Thomas was also convicted of five counts of second-degree robbery, three counts of attempted robbery, and one count of a felon in possession of a firearm, according to prosecutors.

In May 2011, Thomas was arrested and charged along with two accomplices, Destiny Young, 35, and Richard Edward Anderson, 38.

Young, who was Thomas’s girlfriend, and Anderson earlier pleaded guilty to multiple counts and are scheduled to be sentenced July 27.

Contact the Homicide Report. Follow @jeromercampbell and @latimeshomicide on Twitter.