Man convicted of killing airport police officer is sentenced to life without chance of parole

A former aerospace engineer who killed a Los Angeles International Airport police officer during an April 2005 carjacking was sentenced today to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

William Sadowski, 51, was convicted in November of carjacking and first-degree murder in the death of Officer Thomas Scott.

Sadowski carjacked Scott’s patrol vehicle, dragging the 35-year-old officer for a quarter-mile before hitting a fire hydrant, killing Scott instantly.

Authorities believed Sadowski may have been plotting to drive a vehicle onto the airfield at LAX and into an airplane.

A Los Angeles Superior Court jury determined that Sadowski, a Venice transient, was sane when he killed Scott.  The verdict in the sanity phase of the trial came nine days after jurors found Sadowski guilty of first-degree murder.

Scott had served with the airport police department for four years. He is survived by his father, stepmother, and brother.

Marshall McClain, president of the Los Angeles Airport Peace Officers Assn., said he was relieved the ordeal was over.

“It’s been a long five years and we’re glad it’s finally come to closure,” McClain said. “We’re a tight community. [Scott] was one of those individuals that meet you once and felt like he knew you your whole life. He was that kinda guy.”

-- Gerrick D. Kennedy

Comments

[Courtney Kincaid]

Officer Scott- R.I.P. (Rest In Peace)

Inmate Sadowski- R.I.P. (Rot In Prison)

[Chiquis]

FORMER engineer is the correct term. this guy seems to be mentally ill

[Anonymous]

"'[Scott] was one of those individuals that meet you once and felt like he knew you your whole life. He was that kinda guy.'"

Say what?!

[Joe from HB]

I realize the death penalty in California is a joke, but why wasn't this man sentenced to death?

[davidozone]

Yes bieng homeless and living on the streets of Venice and attemting to drive a police car onto the tarmac of an airport are perfectly sane and everday thoughts of sane people?

[mike]

On Friday January 15th 2010 I sat somberly in a courtroom and listened to a defense attorney plea for a mistrial in a case involving the murder of a police officer. She said that the presence of the slain officer’s colleges in uniform was intimidating and that the sentence of life without the possibility of parole was cruel and unusual punishment.

If a uniformed police officer or sheriff deputy is intimidating, then what would you call the presence of a cop killer? If life without the possibility of parole is cruel and unusual, then what is being dragged from a car for thirty seconds at speeds of forty miles per hour before being decapitated as the car crashes into a fire hydrant and tree?

Each and every single day I place a black rubber mourning band around my wrist with the inscription, “honoring our fallen officers,” as a reminder of that fateful day. The least that the defendant can do is don a prison jumpsuit each and every single day as a reminder of what he has done.

Before the sentence was handed down the officer’s last trainee had this to say. “At one point in their life, every police officer wrote a blank check made payable to the city which they serve, for an amount up to and including their life. On Friday April 29, 2005 the city of Los Angeles cashed, in full, a check written by Officer Tommy Edward Scott.”

As I walked out of the courtroom I was reminded of how precious and unpredictable life can be and the importances of treating every moment as if it were our last. For some of us that are here today, will be gone tomorrow. The only guarantee in life is death.

[Dr Feel Good]

We are better off with this nut in prison. I agree, what sane person would try and carjack a police officer. Seems like the man should have been placed in a mental hospital years ago.