Man Gets Life in Prison for 1994 Kidnap-Murders of Two Redondo Beach Men

LOS ANGELES, CA - A man was sentenced Friday to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the kidnap-murders of two Redondo Beach men in 1994.

Howard Bloomgarden, 48, was convicted in May 2014 of two counts of first-degree murder for the strangulation deaths of Peter Kovach and Ted Gould, along with two counts of kidnapping for extortion.

Jurors also found true the special circumstance allegation of murder during the course of a kidnapping, but subsequently deadlocked over whether to recommend a death sentence over life imprisonment.

"He's never -- in 22 years -- accepted responsibility for anything that took place," Deputy District Attorney Geoff Lewin told Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Curtis Rappe, who handed down the sentence without comment.

Prior to the hearing, Lewin entered the adjoining lockup and read letters to Bloomgarden from the victims' family members, who were not present today.

"I wanted him to know how the families feel," the prosecutor said.

Authorities believe 26-year-old Kovach was targeted after having a falling-out with Bloomgarden over a drug operation.

Gould, 29, who worked with Kovach at the Galleria Telecom store, was abducted along with Kovach. Lewin said Gould was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Kovach and Gould were taken to a motel in Lawndale, where they were strangled by Kenneth Friedman, who was sentenced to death in December 2005. Their bodies were dumped in San Diego. Friedman died in August 2012 on San Quentin's Death Row of an apparent suicide.

In his closing argument, the prosecutor painted Bloomgarden as the mastermind behind the plan, calling the evidence against him "absolutely overwhelming."

Federal authorities in New York uncovered the drug operation a few months after the murders.

Gould's father wrote in his letter -- which was provided to City News Service -- that his son did not know his killers and had no involvement in the drug ring.

"I can never recover from the unexpected loss of my son," Arnold Gould wrote. "There is emptiness in my life that will never be filled. I think of Ted all the time. I share memories of his life with my other children, and we will always be wondering what his life would have been like if he had not been murdered."

Bloomgarden, along with all four of the abductors and a lawyer associated with the ringleader, were convicted of federal racketeering charges.

As part of a plea agreement with federal prosecutors, Bloomgarden confessed to helping finance the kidnapping and ordering the killings over the phone.

Rappe today ordered that Bloomgarden's state sentence would run concurrent to the 33-year federal sentence the defendant is currently serving in the New York area.

Under the federal sentence alone, Bloomgarden would have been eligible for release in 2025.

--City News Service, photo via Shutterstock