It was like a super busy time during dinner at L.A. Live, this fancy place full of restaurants and bars right by Crypto.com Arena. On Nov. 28, 2023, at around 6 p.m., a white Ford Escape suddenly pulled out of the crazy traffic on Figueroa Street. The car stopped right outside Fixins Soul Kitchen. Out stepped a dude wearing a dark jogging suit with white trim, white sneakers, and a baseball cap that said “No F—Given” on it. Oh, and he had a black balaclava covering his face as he walked into the restaurant. Security cameras at L.A. Live caught everything that went down next: He sneaked up behind a guy eating alone at the bar, aimed a gun with both hands, and shot him in the back of the head. In front of like 20 people! The cops shared at a court hearing that they figured out who the shooter was and another guy who helped plan this “very well-orchestrated execution.” They used stuff like surveillance footage, license plate readers, and tracking cellphone and car locations to solve the case — sort of. But they still have no clue why these two dudes, who are known gang members with violent pasts, targeted Sidney Barrett Morris, a high-up at California State University, Northridge. To figure out a motive, the cops got a warrant to check the victim’s CSUN email. Morris’ colleagues mentioned he was looking into some players on the men’s basketball team who were accused of sexual misconduct and harassment. They thought maybe that had something to do with his murder. But that didn’t lead anywhere, the lead detective said. Checking public records on Morris, 43, didn’t show any signs of trouble in his life. No messy divorces, business drama, restraining orders, or money problems linking him to the two suspects in his killing. “I’ve been yelling at the D.A. myself: ‘What’s the motive?’” said Theida Salazar, a lawyer for one of the suspects. “My client has no connection to this guy.”
The guy who killed Morris couldn’t have picked a more obvious spot for murder. L.A. Live is basically covered in cameras. Armed with a clear shot of the getaway car’s license plate, the cops found the Ford Escape a couple of days later, burned to a crisp on the side of a road in Palmdale. The rental was totally torched, so they couldn’t get any DNA evidence, Det. Joshua Byers from the LAPD’s Robbery Homicide Division said at the hearing. Police tracking showed the Ford was in South Los Angeles the morning Morris was killed, according to a search warrant affidavit seen by The Times. Detectives got footage from that morning, showing a woman parking the Ford outside a building before going in. The unit was rented by a guy named Santana Jermaine Kelly, Byers wrote. Kelly, then 49, had been in prison before. A report from 2001 said he was a longtime member of the Rollin’ 40s gang called “Ice Man.” First busted at 16 for carjacking, Kelly had been in and out of youth authority and state prison until 2000, when he was charged with following Asian casino patrons home and robbing them. After almost 20 years in prison, Kelly got out, records show.
On the day Morris was killed, Byers wrote, Kelly was seen on surveillance with two distinct hats. He had on the baseball cap that the shooter wore and a wide-brimmed straw hat that the getaway driver wore. Detectives spotted the killer’s face when he went into Kelly’s place in South L.A., Byers said. The guy was wearing the same stuff as the shooter. “Mask, jacket, pants, shoes — everything’s a match,” Byers testified. At L.A. Live, the killer made sure to cover his face. But in South L.A., he took off his balaclava, Byers said. Detectives ID’d him as Phillip Pasco Clark, 33, a known burglar and robber.
Clark got arrested on suspicion of killing Morris on March 22, 2024. From jail, he called a woman. “I never shot anyone,” he said in the recorded call played in court. He also said he’d never been to L.A. Live. Clark mentioned to the cops that, as a Carver Park Compton Crip, he didn’t get along with the “40s,” meaning Kelly’s gang. The woman got mad and told Clark he shouldn’t have said anything. “Shut up!” she yelled. “I don’t shoot people,” Clark insisted. “I’m a robber. Love you.” Kelly was also arrested that day at his place in Palmdale, about 10 miles from where the getaway car was burned, Det. Martin Mojarro testified. In his black Dodge Durango, cops found the baseball cap from the video, Byers said. Going through Kelly’s phone, Mojarro found two videos from a month before Morris was killed. The videos were shot in an alley behind the complex where Morris lived in Westchester. “This is it,” Kelly said on video as he drove around. “Hmm. It’s pretty secure. Cameras everywhere.” The second video showed a parking garage below Morris’ building. “Better to get him at the other place,” Kelly said, according to Mojarro.
Both Kelly and Clark say they didn’t do it. The getaway driver, whose face was hidden by the straw hat, is still unknown, according to Byers’ affidavit. Even though the cops made arrests within four months of Morris’ death, they’re still clueless about the motive. Morris had money troubles before. He filed for bankruptcy in 2013, saying his $76,000-a-year job at the University of San Diego wasn’t enough to cover his $224,000 debt. But by 2019, things seemed better. He landed a job at CSUN as equity and compliance director, making $150,000, school records show. His pay was up to $185,000 by 2023. He even opened a restaurant near L.A. Live. Some CSUN colleagues thought his death had to do with his work. Acting on their tips, Byers got a warrant in April 2024 to look at Morris’ CSUN email. Before he died, Morris was looking into the men’s basketball team, Byers wrote. A female student accused a player of assault and two others of retaliation after she reported it in July 2023. Morris was also running a consulting business for Title IX training. When he hired his firm to advise CSUN for $12,000, some school officials said he was being sketchy, Byers wrote. Morris quit three weeks before he was killed.
Byers wanted to read Morris’ emails to get a sense of his investigations and any worries he had. But after checking them, he didn’t find any link between Morris’ death and his work. The deputy district attorney prosecuting Kelly and Clark, Jonathan Chung, still can’t figure out why Morris was killed. A CSUN spokesperson, Carmen Ramos Chandler, said they don’t think his job was connected to his death. The school is helping the LAPD find the killers, she said. The preliminary hearing for Clark and Kelly continues on May 22.
