Robert (Bobby) Grace has been an outstanding prosecutor for the county of Los Angeles for 32 years. Bobby joined the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office in the fall of 1988. Prior to joining the DA’s office, Bobby attended UCLA for his undergraduate education and received his Juris Doctorate from Loyola Law School. During his tenure, Bobby has been assigned to the Hardcore Gang, Family Violence, Major Crimes and Post-Conviction and Litigation Divisions of the office. Bobby is known for trying complex, high profile cases. He has tried over 100 homicide cases and over 20 special circumstance murder cases. Bobby is currently the Assistant Head Deputy of the Hardcore Gang Division where he is the supervisor for gang prosecutions at Airport, Compton, Inglewood, Long Beach, Norwalk and Torrance courthouses.
In 2012, Bobby helped to convict Pedro Espinoza, a Los Angeles gang member who gunned down high school football star Jamiel Shaw just steps from his home. A jury voted that Espinoza should receive the death penalty. Also in 2012, Bobby convicted Paul Carpenter for the robbery murder of a German tourist in 1998. Since he has been in Major Crimes, Bobby has prosecuted many complicated cases including prolific serial killer Chester Turner, Homeless killers Helen Golay and Olga Rutterschmidt, and prosecuted a Los Angeles Fire Captain for killing his girlfriend. All were convicted of murder.
Bobby has received many awards for his work as a deputy district attorney. In 1998, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors honored Bobby with a special community service award for his work in bringing to justice the killers of Corrie Williams. Williams was a Los Angeles High School student who was killed on a MTA bus on her way home from school. In 2004, Bobby was honored by the Association of Deputy District Attorneys with their Pursuit of Justice Award for his work on the case of Henry Hayes, a Los Angeles minister who murdered his family for money. In 2008, the Los Angeles County Bar Association, Criminal Justice Section named Bobby their Prosecutor of the Year. In 2013, the California Black Peace Officers Association named Bobby their Prosecutor of the Year. In March of 2016, Bobby became one of first members of the LADA's new Conviction Review Unit that reviews claims of those asserting that they were wrongful convicted. In 2017, Bobby became the head of that unit and during his tenure 3 people were exonerated and set free after serving decades in prison for crimes they didn’t commit.
Bobby is a native of San Bernardino and attended San Bernardino High. As an undergraduate, Bobby served as UCLA student body president and in law school he served as president of the Black Law Students Association. Bobby is very active in the Los Angeles community serving currently as Chairperson of the UCLA Black Alumni Association Board of Directors and on the Board of Governors of Loyola Law School. Bobby is also a Vice President and founding member of the Black Prosecutors Los Angeles. Bobby is active with the non profit Our Brother's Keeper and helped to give out over 3,000 backpacks with filled with toiletries to the homeless in December 2019.
