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Convicted cop killer Earl Ellis Green scheduled for sentencing in Riverside
Joseph Bonaminio (left), the father of slain Riverside policeman Ryan Bonaminio, and Riverside County District Attorney Rod Pacheco announce the charges against killer Earl Ellis Green.
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Convicted cop killer Earl Ellis Green scheduled for sentencing in Riverside
Convicted cop killer Earl Ellis Green is scheduled for sentencing Monday. A jury recommended the death penalty earlier this month after convicting Green of murdering a Riverside police officer two years ago.
Earl Green killed 27-year-old officer Ryan Bonaminio at the end of a late night foot chase in a Riverside park. Prosecutors say Green clubbed Bonaminio, an Iraq War veteran, with a steel bar after the officer slipped. He then got hold of Bonaminio’s service revolver and shot him.
After jurors returned their verdict recommending the death penalty, Bonaminio’s sister Nicki called her brother a hero.
“After having his skull cracked, he still got up and fought for his life," said Nicki Bonaminio. "Earl Green does not deserve to be on death row. He deserves to have his skull cracked just like how my brother’s was. And deserves to be executed just like he did my brother, and laying in an empty parking lot just like he left Ryan.”
Defense attorneys conceded that Green was the shooter. But they argued the killing was not premeditated and that the career criminal suffers from a range of psychological problems.
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