2 Guilty in Paid Killing as Jury Weighs Role of Victim’s Son

Two Palmdale men were convicted Wednesday of first-degree murder for their roles in the contract killing of a friend’s father, while a separate jury continued to deliberate the fate of the man accused of recruiting them for the job.

Gene Marshall Flack, 24, and Michael Brown, 22, were both convicted of first-degree murder in the killing of Raymond Godlewski Sr., 45, who was shot in the head July 4, 1989, at the front door of his Sylmar home.

Investigators said Flack fired the single shotgun blast that killed Godlewski and that Brown, his roommate, drove the getaway car. Flack was arrested after police received an anonymous phone tip that he had been bragging to friends about his role in a Sylmar murder case. Brown was arrested shortly thereafter.

Flack and Godlewski’s son, Raymond Godlewski Jr., had grown up together in Sylmar and had been longtime friends. Prosecutors said the younger Godlewski once offered Flack $5,000 to kill his father and later increased the bid to $7,000.

Flack was also convicted of the special circumstance of murder for financial gain by a San Fernando Superior Court jury. He faces life in prison without possibility of parole when he is sentenced on Nov. 2, and Brown faces 26 years to life in prison.

Meanwhile, another jury is still deliberating the fate of the younger Godlewski, although Deputy Dist. Atty. Craig Richman said he believes that the victim’s son “will be convicted and will go to jail.”

“It’s just a question of what he will be convicted of,” Richman said Wednesday.

During the trial, Richman argued that Godlewski masterminded the execution-style killing to collect a $280,000 inheritance from his father.

But Godlewski’s attorney, Deputy Public Defender Kenneth P. Lezin, argued during the trial that the elder Godlewski was extremely violent and often threatened family members. Lezin said his client was terrified of his father and feared his father would kill him.

During the trial, Godlewski testified in his own behalf, saying that his father beat and abused him when he was growing up and verbally harassed him at the trucking company where they both worked. Shortly before the murder, the senior Godlewski threatened his son with a rifle, his son testified.

Richman said the jury will have to decide whether Godlewski planned the killing of his father out of fear or for profit. He faces charges of first-degree murder with the special circumstance that he killed for financial gain.