Norwalk : Death Penalty Sought in Fatal Armored Car Heist

A Norwalk Superior Court jury on Tuesday recommended that Marchand Elliott be given the death penalty for the fatal shooting and armed robbery of an armored car guard in front of a Bellflower market in 1988.

The Norwalk jury convicted Elliott, 24, of first-degree murder and armed robbery March 20. He was also convicted of committing assault with a deadly weapon at an Inglewood market in October, 1988.

Judge Robert W. Armstrong is scheduled to sentence Elliott on April 21, but Deputy Dist. Atty. Frank Sundstedt said the sentencing would probably be postponed pending an appeal.

Elliott shot Patrick Rooney, 35, once in the head as the guard was walking to his armored car after making a cash pickup at a market on Lakewood Boulevard in Bellflower on Dec. 15, 1988. Elliott took Rooney’s money bag.

Authorities thought that Elliott was part of a gang that committed more than a dozen armored car robberies in Los Angeles, Ventura and Riverside counties. But Sundstedt said investigators turned up no evidence linking Elliott to the gang.