A California man must be put to death because he tried to take over an aerospace business through murder, burglary, and extortion, the state’s highest court ruled.

Theodore Shove III was convicted of the murders of 81-year-old Hubert Souther and his 79-year-old wife, Elizabeth, in 2001.

Shove’s motive was to take control of Cal Aero, the aerospace hardware business that Hubert founded in 1975. He devised a three-part plan to achieve this goal:

• Hire a friend to murder the Southers so the business will pass to their children
• Steal items from the safe in the Cal Aero lunchroom
• Extort money from the children to buy the business

Shove was working with a company called Industrial Salvage, and he talked with its owner, Stanley Steves, about buying Cal Aero.

William Vann, the president of Cal Aero, asked where Shove would get the money to buy the company. He replied that the funds would come from “the mafia.”

Shove used the mafia-style alias “Tony Bonnano” and claimed to have access to an armed band of Mexican “enforcers.”

The Southers were found dead in their bed on Sept. 17, 2001. They had been beaten with a tire iron. Shove’s friend, Lewis Harden, was eventually convicted of the killings and sentenced to life in prison without parole.

Vann testified that one week earlier, Shove had told him about a “dry run” burglary of the Southers’ home. Vann also stated that Shove called him on the morning of the murders and told him to “expect some good news.”

One day after the Southers’ bodies were discovered, the Cal Aero safe was robbed. The daughters had already removed $1,900 and Hubert’s coin collection from the safe.

Vann testified that he helped with the burglary. The bottom of the safe was cut out and documents, including Elizabeth’s will, were removed.

A few days later, Shove called the Southers’ attorney, asking to “continue” his negotiations to buy Cal Aero. Shove offered $5 million, but the attorney said the company was worth $6 million to $7 million.

According to Vann, Shove said he sent the following letter “to extort the family into selling him the business:”

“You hired me. You gave me my first money. I did the first job. You know I did the job. I did the second job but my owed money wasn’t there. This is proof I did the second job. Your guy didn’t get the key to me ‘til after midnight and still I got the job done. Leave a message at the springs number. Pay me my money.

Monte Proulx, co-owner of Industrial Salvage, used the alias “Mike Powers” to claim that he had evidence linking the Southers’ son-in-law, Kenneth Renck, to the murder.

Proulx later wrote to the company that Renck had been caught stealing from the safe and would be disinherited, motivating him to hire the killer.

A search warrant revealed that Shove had written the extortion letter, and he was prosecuted.

Vann was also arrested for burglary, extortion, and receiving stolen property. He pleaded guilty to commercial burglary and was sentenced to time served and probation.

Shove challenged his murder conviction and death sentence, but the California Supreme Court upheld the ruling in an opinion written by Justice Leondra Kruger.

The issues on appeal included the following:

CHALLENGE TO SEARCH WARRANT EVIDENCE

“The affidavit … ties Shove to the computer-generated extortion letters, one of which included the will burgled from the Cal Aero safe,” Kruger wrote.

EXCLUSION OF THIRD-PARTY CULPABILITY EVIDENCE

“Evidence of Kenneth’s or Vann’s culpability would not tend to exculpate Shove in any event,” Kruger stated. “Because no testimony or circumstantial evidence limited the number of perpetrators, Kenneth’s or Vann’s participation would not undermine the significant evidence linking Shove to the murder.”

ADMISSION OF A RECORDING OF SHOVE SAYING …

“I can talk people into anything. You listen to me for five minutes and you’ll follow me for five years. That was my motto. That’s what I can do. I can’t sing. I can’t have no other talents, only that, that and the ability to go kill, if the reason was right.”

Kruger ruled that the recording should have been admitted, but it would not have changed the outcome.

PROSECUTION USING “TONY BONNANO” MONIKER

“It was relevant to Shove’s state of mind or intent with respect to the charged offenses,” Kruger wrote. “Indeed, the prosecution’s primary reason for introducing evidence regarding the alias was to establish that Shove cultivated a ‘mystique’ of being a ‘mafia man’ to intimidate others, including the other participants in the scheme.

APPEALS TO SYMPATHY OF THE JURY

Kruger ruled that the prosecution crossed the line by stating, “think of how they died” and how they spent “the last few minutes of their life struggling in that bed.”

“It was also improper for the prosecutor to recount Collette discovering her parents’ bodies and then ask jurors to ‘imagine’ this experience,” she added.

However, Kruger ruled that any misconduct here did not prejudice Shove.

“The appeals to the jurors’ sympathies were neither direct nor explicit in content; the improper arguments were relatively brief in the context of the entirety of the prosecution’s closing; and the prosecutor made no further appeals to sympathy,” she wrote.

Justice Kelli Evans wrote a dissenting opinion regarding the exclusion of four African-Americans from the jury.

“The prosecutor forgot to provide a reason for one of the jurors and the defense failed to point out the deficiency to the trial court. It is unreasonable to assume that the trial court recognized the parties’ failures and implicitly altered its ruling from the normal course,” Evans wrote.

“The most reasonable conclusion is that the trial court, like the parties, failed to notice that no reason was provided for striking Juror No. 206,” she added.