California IN BRIEF : REDWOOD CITY : Vietnam Vet Gets Life Term for Slaying

Ronald McIntosh, a Vietnam War pilot who swooped a helicopter into a prison yard to help his girlfriend escape, was sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole for the contract murder of a Sausalito business executive. San Mateo County Superior Court Judge John Bible sentenced him for a “cold-blooded killing committed in order to maintain a fraudulent operation.” A jury deliberated six days in December before finding McIntosh guilty of first-degree murder in the 1984 slaying of Ronaldson Ewing, whose bullet-riddled body was found on Montara State Beach in San Mateo County. Investigators said Ewing was involved in a now-defunct precious metals company that allegedly swindled investors out of $18 million. In 1987, McIntosh was sentenced to 25 years for hijacking a helicopter and using it to free his girlfriend from the Federal Correctional Institution at Pleasanton.