A 32-year-old man was sentenced to two life terms without the possibility of parole earlier this month in connection with the deaths of two people, one during a robbery at a Reseda jewelry store and the other a carjacking victim in Inglewood, court records show.
Joshua Reneau was handed the sentence in Los Angeles Superior Court on Sept. 18, a month after a jury convicted him of more than a dozen counts, including two counts of murder, 10 counts of assault with a deadly weapon, two counts of carjacking, two counts of second degree robbery and one count each of possession of a firearm by a felon and fleeing a pursuing peace officer’s vehicle, court records show.
The murder charges stem from the deaths of Earl Hunter, an accomplice of Reneau’s who was fatally shot by a security guard during the robbery in Reseda on July 29, 2022, and 63-year-old Larry Walker of La Habra, who was dragged by a seatbelt for two miles after Reneau carjacked his car and fled from police on Oct. 13, 2022.
The devastating series of events began just past midnight on July 29, 2022 in the 18500 block of Sherman Way in Reseda when Reneau, Hunter, Derek Hall and Miracole Brown committed a pair of street robberies that led to shootings, which left two victims injured. Two large necklaces were stolen from the victim.
“Officers determined a street robbery had occurred,” police said after Reneau’s arrest. “It was believed the victim was targeted for his jewelry.”
Nearly an hour later, Hunter was found with a gunshot wound in the 18300 block of Saticoy Street and was taken to a hospital, but died.
On Oct. 13, 2022, Los Angeles police detectives arrested Hall, of West Covina, and Brown, of South Los Angeles, police said. They then obtained an arrest warrant for Reneau and went to his home in the 5900 block of Seventh Avenue.
They spotted him getting into the passenger side of a vehicle about 5 p.m. and attempted to pull it over, but the driver fled and a pursuit ensued, police said. After a crash, Reneau got out of the car and carjacked Walker’s vehicle in South Los Angeles, but Walker became entangled in the seatbelt and was dragged alongside his own car for more than two miles.
Reneau crashed into “several police vehicles and ultimately flipped the car on its side” near Prairie and Florence avenues in Inglewood, police said. Walker was found in the street about three houses away from where the car came to rest.
Reneau initially barricaded himself in the car, but eventually surrendered without further incident.
ABC Los Angeles captured footage of Reneau’s sentencing, in which he was seen slumped in a chair with an eye patch covering his left eye, briefly looking around during the hearing, including when Walker’s loved ones gave their statements about the impacts of the brutal crime.