Man Gets Life Term for Role in Killing Pizza Deliveryman

Man gets life term for role in killing pizza deliveryman

Bill Callahan STAFF WRITER Published: June 20, 1998

An Encanto man convicted of murdering a pizza deliveryman who had been lured to his death begged for mercy in a San Diego courtroom yesterday.

Denied, said the judge, ruling that the killer deserved no more compassion than he showed the man who prosecutors say was executed for the money emptied from his pockets.

With that, Haneef Shaheed, 21, was sentenced to a prison term of life without the possibility of parole for his role in the slaying of Fernando Ulissi Duran Contreras in South San Diego on March 12, 1994.

Prosecutor Jonathan Oliphant said Duran, 24, was kidnapped at gunpoint while responding to a ruse call for a pizza delivery at a house in Nestor and then killed in a desolate canyon about five miles away.

Oliphant said Duran was abducted as part of a plot hatched by his estranged wife, Luz Beatrice Duran, 28, Shaheed and two other men, Marco Hernandez, 26, and Nelson Alfaro Alcides, 25, at a party hosted by Hernandez.

The men were enticed, the prosecutor said, by Luz Duran's assurances that her husband carried as much as $1,000 on his deliveries, although he rarely had more than $20. The amount of money stolen has never been determined, Oliphant said, but investigators believe it was not more than a few dollars.

Duran's body was found by a group of off-road vehicle fanciers. He was wearing a white shirt with "New York Giant Pizza" emblazoned on it. The front pockets of his jeans had been turned inside out.

Alfaro was arrested in Tijuana two days later in the 1992 Chevrolet Cavalier with Florida plates that Duran had been driving. Alfaro later pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and is serving a prison term of 15 years to life.

Also pleading guilty and serving similar terms are Hernandez and Luz Duran. Prosecutors said a lengthy investigation was hindered because Shaheed made threats against the other witnesses. They eventually testified for the prosecution in the case.

Shaheed pleaded with Superior Court Judge Richard Murphy for a reduction in sentence, citing his hopes to host overnight visits from his wife and two children that would be denied if he was classified as prisoner who could not be paroled. He insisted he was no more guilty than the others and was being singled out for prosecution because he was the only one who did not "make a deal with the DA's office."

Shaheed also complained in an interview with a probation officer that he has been persecuted by a San Diego police officer. He said the officer holds a grudge against him because Shaheed twice avoided conviction in an unrelated attempted-murder case.

Shaheed has a lengthy criminal record involving numerous scrapes with the law dating back to when he was 14, several involving violence and weapons.

"This was a particularly cruel, vicious, senseless murder in which the defendant played a leadership role," Judge Murphy said in refusing to reduce the prison term.

"The other defendants were less culpable and pleaded guilty. Mr. Shaheed is more culpable and never admitted responsibility. The defendant deserves no more mercy than he showed Mr. Duran."