On this day, April 12, in 2000, 71-year-old retired character actor Robert Cleaves was convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to 16 years for repeatedly running over a man with his car in a road-rage incident.
Witnesses said their curiosity turned to horror as they first watched Cleaves chase the other driver in their cars through downtown Santa Monica.
Thirty-eight-year-old movie company employee Arnold Guerriero got out of his car. Cleaves hit the gas and struck him, throwing Guerriero on the hood of Cleaves’ car. Cleaves then ran over the victim twice, dragging him for 350 feet.
Cleaves, who appeared in “Dragnet,” “Brett Maverick,” “The Streets of San Francisco,” and other television shows, remains in prison. – Scott McCabe
