“A meticulously planned execution”: Mysteriously revolves around La Live Killing

It was the peak of the dinner boom in Los Angeles Live, a glittering, neon restaurant and bar steps from the crypto.com arena steps.

At around 6 pm on November 28, 2023, a white Ford escaped and pulled out rush hour traffic on Figueroa Street and fixed the Soul Kitchen along the side of the road.

A man is wearing a black jogging suit, white sneakers and a baseball cap with a “no f” in front. Black balaclava covered his face as he entered the restaurant.

La Live's security cameras captured what happened next: In front of about 20 diners and employees, he aimed at the pistol with both hands and shot him behind his head, behind about 20 diners and employees.

During a court hearing Wednesday, LAPD detectives revealed how they identified the alleged shooter and the second man, accused of coordinating what the police called “very well-planned execution.”

Detectives testified that surveillance videos, license plate readers, and analysis of cell phone and car location data helped solve the case – but only partly.

It remains a mystery why the two defendants (alleged to be members of the gang that were pre-convicted for violent crimes) targeted Sidney Barrett Morris until shortly before his death they held senior positions at California State University in Northridge.

In order to find the motive, the detective obtained a search warrant for the victim's CSUN email account. Morris' colleagues told detectives he had been investigating players from the school's men's basketball team who were charged with sexual misconduct and harassment. His colleagues theorized the investigation was related to his homicide.

Leader detectives told The Times that tips are everywhere.

A review of public records related to 43-year-old Morris found no obvious signs of life in distress. No angry divorce or business dispute, restriction order or recent financial troubles – no relationship connects him to the two men accused of murder.

“I kept screaming to the DA: 'What is the motivation?'” “My client has no relationship with this guy.”

Morris' killer barely chose a more compelling murder.

La Live is using cameras to make it. Authorities used a clear and accurate license plate to photograph the license plate of the escaping car, and two days later found Ford escaped, burning on the side of a road in Palmdale. Hertz's rent has burned to its framework, excluding a collection of DNA evidence, Det. Joshua Byers of LAPD's robbery and homicide testified at Wednesday's hearing.

Byers wrote in the search warrant affidavit reviewed by The Times that police license readers showed Ford was killed in South Los Angeles on the morning of Morris' murder. Detectives got video from that morning showing a woman at Ford Park outside the building on Second Avenue and then entering one of the units.

Byers wrote that the unit was rented by a man named Santana Jermaine Kelly.

Kelly, 49, was released from prison in 2019. According to a 2001 probation report reviewed by Times, Baldwin Villagers were a long-time member of Rolling's nickname as “Ice Man” in the 1940s.

Kelly was arrested for hijacking a woman for the first time, Kelly entered and exited the California Youth Administration and state prison until 2000, when he was accused of following Asian customers at Hollywood Park Casino to their homes and robbing them.

Kelly released after being released from a potential life sentence of 19 years, court records show.

Byles wrote that on the morning of Morris' murder, Kelly saw two unique hats in the surveillance camera. Detective wrote that he was wearing a baseball cap and later saw it on the shooter. He also held a wide straw hat, which the detective saw on the camera of La Live, covering the face of the evading driver.

Byles testified that at the South Los Angeles Building, detectives also caught a glimpse of the killer's face. A man enters Kelly's unit wearing the same clothes as the Sagittarius. Byers testified: “Masks, jackets, pants, shoes – everything is the same.”

Phillip Clark, on display here in 2015, was charged with filming Sidney Barrett Morris while having dinner at Fixins Soul Kitchen on November 28, 2023.

(California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation)

In Los Angeles Live, the killer carefully covered his face. But in South Los Angeles, he pulled down Balaclava and Byers testified. Detectives identified him as Phillip Pasco Clark, then 33, a convicted robber and thief.

Clark was arrested on March 22, 2024 on suspicion of Morris murder, saying a woman was from prison. “I will never shoot,” he declared on a recording call played in court, saying, if he had been to Los Angeles before.

Clark said he told detectives that he was not with the “40s” as a member of Carver Park Compton Crips, which is a reference to the Kelly gang.

The woman was angry and told Clark that he shouldn't say anything. “Stop talking!” she shouted.

“I don't shoot people,” Clark said. “I'm a robber. I love you.”

On the same day, detectives arrested Kelly at his Palmdale home, about 10 miles from where the vacation car was burned. Martin Mojarro testified. Byles said that in his Black Dodge Durango Detective, the detective found the baseball cap from the video.

Mojarro searched through Kelly's phone and he found two videos strolling a month before Morris was killed. Detectives recognize where they were filmed: a small alley behind the Westchester apartment building where Morris lives.

“It's a place,” Kelly said. “Hmm. A little bit safe. There are red cameras. So he's very tight. As you can see, there are cameras everywhere.”

The second video shows the parking lot below the Morris building. “I think it's better to take him to another place,” Kelly said.

Kelly and Clark both maintain their innocence. According to Byers' affidavit, the evading driver's face was covered by a straw hat.

Although detectives arrested within four months of Morris' death, they still don't know much about the motive.

Morris has experienced financial problems in the past. He declared bankruptcy in 2013 and said in a petition that he earned $76,000 a year for a University of San Diego human resources administrator and could not pay the $224,000 he owed on student debt, unpaid taxes and personal loans.

But Morris's fate appeared to improve in 2019, according to school records reviewed by The Times, when he was hired as CSUN's equity and compliance director of $150,000 salary. By 2023, his annual salary has risen to $185,000. He also opened a restaurant, B-you, about three blocks from La Live.

Some of Morris' colleagues at CSUN theorized that his death was related to his work. Byers acted on their prompts in April 2024, writing a search warrant for his CSUN email account.

Morris was investigating the CSUN men's basketball team before his death. A female student accused a basketball player of sexual assault and two other players of retaliation following retaliation held in July 2023, according to university records reviewed by The Times.

Morris also runs a consulting business that provides IX title compliance training. Byers wrote in the affidavit when he hired his own company to advise the school for $12,000.

Morris resigned three weeks before his death.

Byles wants to read Morris' email. He wrote in his affidavit that notes could “provide insights into the investigations conducted by the victim and reveal that “the victim may have had any concerns, threats or fears.”

But after reviewing the email, Byles told the Times that he found no evidence linking Morris' death to his university work.

agent. Atti. Jonathan Zhong, who sued Kelly and Clark, said he still didn't know Morris' motive for killing.

CSUN spokesman Carmen Ramos Chandler said university officials “have no reason to believe that his death is related to his work.”

She said the school will continue to work with LAPD: “To bring the perpetrators to justice.”

Clark and Kelly's preliminary hearing will continue on May 22.