By Justine Amodeo
Special to the Independent
A Los Angeles attorney who lived part time in Laguna Beach was shot and killed Tuesday at Laguna Lido Condominiums. Laguna Beach Police Department detectives, investigating the city’s first homicide in nearly a year, said the suspect, who remains at large, broke a window of the second floor condo occupied by 46-year-old Sherman Oaks attorney Barret Adin Slome, a part-time Laguna Beach resident, and fatally shot him.
Officers received a 911 call at 5:19 am from a Laguna Lido resident who heard breaking glass followed by the sound of gunshots, according to the department release. Officers arrived at the second-floor unit, which is owned by the victim’s father, and located a shattered window and a man inside suffering from gunshot wounds. Paramedics were called but Slome was pronounced dead at the scene.
Laguna Beach Police Sgt. Jim Cota said detectives are actively working the investigation, and the Orange County Crime Lab will be assisting with processing the scene and evidence collection.
Investigators do not believe the shooting was a random act or crime of opportunity, Cota told the Orange County Register, adding that evidence does not suggest that the suspect was invited onto the property, and it would have taken considerable effort to get inside. “You couldn’t just walk in there,” Cota told the Register. “You’d have to climb your way in.”
While police have not suggested a motive for the shooting, according to the State Bar of California, in May of 2019, Slome was placed on probation and his license to practice law was suspended for 30 days after being convicted of the unlawful possession of cannabis for sale.
According to State Bar Court of California records, the conviction came after Slome was shot six times during a home invasion robbery in 2017 in Los Angeles. Officers responding to the incident found a semi-automatic rifle, a broken sliding glass door, bullet holes in the walls and several rooms and blood-stained walls at Slome’s home, located in an upscale Los Angeles neighborhood. They also found bags containing $19,429 in cash as well as approximately 350 pounds of marijuana. Slome was hospitalized for two months and pleaded no contest to the misdemeanor offense. Cota told the Register it is unclear if his death had anything to do with the earlier robbery.
Anyone with information about this crime is asked to call the Laguna Beach Police Department Major Crimes Investigations Unit at (949) 497-0767 – Detective Drake or (949) 497-0373 – Detective Butterfield.
