Asia Morton was sentenced to one year in jail and one year of mandatory supervision for her role in the murder of Condor Club manager Marc Calcagni.
Sonoma County Superior Court Judge Lynnette Brown handed down the two-year split term to Morton, 26, in a Santa Rosa courtroom last week, according to court records and her attorney. The former bartender at San Francisco’s legendary Condor Club had pleaded no contest to accessory after the fact in connection with the October slaying of Calcagni, 60.
Detectives believe Morton’s boyfriend and fellow Condor Club employee Richard Lund, 43, ambushed Calcagni outside his Santa Rosa home after waiting for him to return from a late-night shift. Calcagni’s body was discovered around 6:30 a.m. On Oct. 3 in a bike lane near his residence.
Lund was arrested on Oct. 24 at the couple’s apartment complex in Dublin, where officers executed a search warrant and seized evidence tied to the slaying, according to Santa Rosa police. Morton was taken into custody separately at San Francisco International Airport after returning from international travel.
She initially pleaded not guilty to being an accessory but later entered a no contest plea. Lund has pleaded not guilty to murder charges, and his trial is scheduled to begin later this month.
Prosecutors said Morton was “instrumental” in assisting Lund by helping him secure two vehicles for travel. She remained in contact with him in the hours leading up to and after the murder, they said, and she facilitated a rental car return. She also helped discard items that Lund left behind.
“The defendant’s actions of lying about who the items belonged to and requesting they be thrown away were the continuation of a calculated and sophisticated series of events that culminated in the murder,” prosecutors wrote in court filings.
The killing may have been motivated by Calcagni’s decision to fire Morton and Lund over suspicions that they were dealing drugs, the Santa Rosa Press Democrat reported.
Both Judge Brown and prosecutors reportedly criticized Morton’s statement of remorse at her sentencing hearing.
“The letter really fails to take accountability at all and the letter is frankly inadequate with minimal remorse stated,” Judge Brown said from the bench.
Calcagni was a fixture in San Francisco’s adult entertainment scene, managing both the Condor Club and Vanity San Francisco, another nearby topless club, according to police and colleagues.
“He became one of the Mount Rushmores of Broadway,” Wolfgang Welch, who recently took over management duties at Vanity, told the San Francisco Chronicle.
The Condor Club opened in 1964 and bills itself as America’s first topless bar. It has been a landmark on the city’s Broadway strip for decades, drawing tourists and locals to its neon-signed storefront.
In the viral moment that preceded the murder, Morton and Lund were fired from the Condor Club by Calcagni, who suspected the couple of dealing drugs at the establishment. The termination set in motion a chain of events that prosecutors described as a calculated plot, with Lund allegedly lying in wait for Calcagni to return home from his late-night managerial duties before gunning him down in the early morning hours.
Lund’s trial on murder charges is expected to begin in Sonoma County later this month.