Ex-Hughes Employee Gets 25 Years in Shooting

Walter James Waddy, a 62-year-old disgruntled former employee who stormed into a Hughes Electronics complex in April and shot three people, was sentenced Friday to 25 years in prison.

Waddy, quiet and subdued, wearing a navy blue suit and the same neck brace he wore during his shooting rampage, stood before Torrance Superior Court Judge Robert Mallano and apologized for the agony he had caused. Several of those who were hurt or frightened by his attack watched in silence.

Waddy, who has never given a coherent explanation for his outburst, continued to blame Hughes, where he worked in El Segundo for 16 years. He quit in 1993 because of a neck injury and was locked in a four-year fight over workers’ compensation benefits. The case was settled months before his assault for $40,000.

“I am sorry for what I did,” Waddy said in a soft voice. “Hughes could have stopped [it] before it got that far. . . . They wouldn’t give me my paycheck on time. . . . It had to end this way.”

Prosecutors said Waddy will have to serve at least 21 years.

None of the victims offered statements to the court before sentencing, but their scars were evident.

Ramon Ramirez, a 61-year-old security guard who was shot in the chest when Waddy walked into the Hughes complex’s lobby, is still only working three to four hours a day. Ramirez spent nearly a month in the hospital after a bullet penetrated his ribs, punctured his lung and stopped one inch from his spine. His family did not know whether he was going to live after he took a turn for the worse while in the hospital.

“I’m happy to be putting this case to rest,” Ramirez said outside the courtroom. “This was an important part of my life. I wanted to at least witness the sentencing.”

Ramirez’s right side is still sore from the wound. His body eventually will heal, he said, but his family cannot forget the pain of nearly losing him during the three weeks they clung to his bedside.

For Emma Rupert, a security guard, the wounds are emotional.

Waddy told her to “hit the deck” before he fired two shots at security guard Phil Gonzales, wounding Gonzales once in the hip. He then put a gun to her back, but she escaped into a restroom.

The rampage occurred three months after her husband’s death. Rupert’s father died a month later. She wasn’t able to return to work until October.

“I cried for days and days and days--I just couldn’t stop,” she said in a presentencing report prepared by the Probation Department. “I dream about it. I see it. I’ll never forget the damage he’s done.”

She did not attend the sentencing.

Gonzales has had five operations and has been told that he will need to have a hip replaced.

Waddy, who had never been arrested before the shooting, pleaded guilty Dec. 4 to three counts of second-degree attempted murder, two counts of assault with a firearm and two counts of false imprisonment.

It remains unclear why Waddy, hired by Hughes’ Radar and Communications Systems Division as a components test technician, stomped into the complex with a .38-caliber revolver and 35 hollow-point bullets in hand.

He first shot Hughes electrical engineer Tony Rojas in the shoulder. Then he shot the two security guards before going to the second floor. He held Mark Pham and Miguel Velasquez hostage about an hour before Pham persuaded him to surrender.