January 2008 Archives

Before being transferred to LAPD's Central Division where he now supervises the detectives, Lt. Paul Vernon used to help run the show for the LAPD media.

Vernon's also the only cop who actually talked to Cardinal Roger Mahony after I wrote a story about Mahony saying he was beaten in a summertime attack. (story link is not an endorsement of any particular organization - our link has expired)

Alas, Vernon -- well-respected in this newsroom for being approachable and a fairly straight-shooter during his time with the media department -- knows a good (funny?) story when he sees one. You decide –

from LAPD MEDIA

January 31, 2008

Los Angeles. Two Los Angeles police officers arrested two men yesterday who are suspected in a spree of burglaries since last August. The burglars had been breaking into apartments at the Orsini, located at 550 N. Figueroa in China Town.

Senior Lead Officers Ken Lew and Tim Nambu went to the apartments on Jan. 30, 2008, to inspect the security systems there and determine how one or more suspects were getting into the building.

Nine different apartments had been broken into since last August, six in the Orsini I building, and three more in the Orsini II, across the street. The last burglary had occurred earlier that day, before the officers arrived.

"While we were looking things over, we heard a car crash outside," said Officer Ken Lew, who is one of two Senior Lead Officers in China Town. "When Tim and I went to help at the accident, we noticed all this furniture in one car. It looked odd, and resembled the same stuff taken from the apartments."

Lew and Nambu detained two men, Art Artanesyan, 22, and Joshua Carrillo, 30, at the scene. The officers verified the furniture had come from the Orsini burglary, then they realized Artanesyan actually lived in the Orsini. Carrillo was his friend and lives in El Monte.

"Sometimes it's better to be lucky than good," said Lieutenant Paul Vernon, head of the Central Detective Division. "But in this case, Officers Lew and Nambu made their luck by doing their job and being in the right place at the right time."

Detectives found dozens of stolen furnishings taken from model apartments in the Orsini. "Apparently, the suspects were 'wannabe' room designers, furnishing their own apartment with other persons' lamps and sofas," Vernon said.

Detectives encourage all property owners to invest in high-resolution security cameras, which are becoming less expensive and higher quality every day. While the Orsini had several cameras on the exterior, the suspects were able to act unseen because they had legitimate access to the building.

Artanesyan and Carrillo were booked for residential burglary. Their bail was set at $50,000. Detectives will work at returning the stolen items to their rightful owners.

Anyone with information related to this burglary spree should call Detective Hyung Cho
at (213) 972-1230, or call the LAPD Hotline any time at 1-877-LAWFULL (529-3855).

Photographs of some of the stolen furnishings are available from Media Relations Section.

A man was shot in the leg last night in North Hills. The victim took himself to Olive View Hospital. He had been visiting his girlfriend on Langdon Avenue near Roscoe Boulevard in North Hills. While walking back to Roscoe, he heard 10 gunshots coming from an unknown location and felt a burning to his left thigh. He was unsure where the shooting occurred. The victim received a superficial wound and was treated and released. No other details were immediately available.

I spoke with the lead homicide and robbery detective at the West Los Angeles station and he told me about an Inglewood man -- initially reported to be from North Hollywood -- who was charged today with murder and attempted murder after allegedly running his girlfriend and his uncle over with his car after a night of drinking.

The three reportedly partied together at the Silverlake Lounge Sunday evening, described by one Web site as "a Latino drag-queen hangout Friday through Monday."

Afterward as Carlos Gutierrez, 26, drove, with his 37-year-old girlfriend, Yolanda Martinez, of Los Angeles and Gutierrez' 39-year-old uncle, sitting in the passenger seats, an argument broke out. Martinez and

Gutierrez' uncle got out of the car and Gutierrez ran the pair over, said LAPD Detective Mike Pelletier.
Martinez' injuries were fatal and the uncle suffered a broken leg.

The scenario's strange enough - but, unfortunately - it gets stranger.

"For whatever reason he put them back in the vehicle, and drove around to the Palisades area," Pelletier said.

The trio ended up at a gas station at 15281 Sunset Blvd. Police received a call from the uncle's cellphone, but it's unclear who made the call.

The killing most likely occurred sometime between 1 and 2 a.m. Monday at an unknown location, Pelletier said.

L.A. Times story.

The photo is of actor Josh Hartnett posing with murder victim Jose Carrillo, who was a caterer to the stars on movie shoots. Carrillo was strangled Jan. 12 in a Sylmar motel room. He was killed after allegedly being set up to be robbed by his stepdaughter and three other alleged accomplices. Here's the story.

SYLMAR - A fourth suspect has been arrested in connection with the murder of a 45-year-old chef whose strangled body was found earlier this month inside a Sylmar motel.

Erika Denisse Rodriguez, a 25-year-old resident of Sylmar, surrendered to police last night at the LAPD's Mission Hills police station in the death of Jose Eugenio Carrillo, whose body was found at 9:30 a.m. on Jan. 12 at the Country Side Inn, at 14955 Roxford St., in Sylmar, police said.

She was booked into the Los Angeles County Jail on a murder charge, with bail set at $1 million.

Carrillo was a veteran chef at Hollywood Caterers, a company that catered to the film industry. He catered for such hits as "A Simple Plan" and met actors Billy Bob Thornton and Bill Paxton and "Here on Earth" with Josh Hartnett, with whom he posed for a photo.

"Film crews from Minnesota and L.A. are going to miss him," said Deb Staloch, a longtime friend who worked with him for years. When she heard the news of his death, "I didn't believe it. I can't even describe it. He'd give you the shirt off his back. He'd do anything for you. If you needed money, he'd give it to you. He was like a big brother to my kids. He was my best friend."

Carrillo left behind a wife and two young daughters.

"He was a great father and loved his kids and the kids couldn't wait for him to get home," said Staloch. "They loved their daddy."

Police believe Carrillo had been set up by his own stepdaughter, Itzel Ponce Gutierrez, a
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19-year-old waitress from Sylmar, to be robbed, but for reasons police did not reveal, the man was killed. Gutierrez faces one count of robbery conspiracy, police said.

She allegedly set up the robbery in which she and two alleged accomplices took Carrillo's Chevrolet Avalanche to ATMs and used his credit cards to withdraw cash, police said.

The day after Carrillo's death, police quickly identified two suspects, caught in their neighborhood in the 14200 block of Calvert Street in Van Nuys, stripping the Avalanche. Its seats, radios, speakers, and wheels all had been stripped, police said.

"They were stripping," said Los Angeles Police Detective Gene Parshall. "When police came in, the two guys ran from where the car was."

Parshall said the two kicked in a door to an occupied apartment nearby to try to hide, forcing a brief standoff with police before surrendering. There were no injuries.

The suspects, Armando "Tripps" Torrez, 23, and 17-year-old Anthony Hernandez, aka "Little Shadow" or "Habit," are accused members of Barrio Van Nuys. They have been charged with murder, robbery, burglary, lying in wait, and a gang enhancement, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office.

Torrez is an ex-con who spent two years, eight months in state prison custody stemming from two convictions in 2002 - assault with a deadly weapon and grand theft, according to the California Department of Corrections.

The two female suspects were described as acquaintances of the two males, police said.

Or at least, things should be coming to a head with the last day for the City Council to act on a rule earlier adopted by the Police Commission coming next week. Either way, things are heating up and this rule that promises to end a years-long federal consent decree has divided top city officials and law enforcement.

On Tuesday Warren Christopher --as in the former secretary of state who headed the independent investigation of the LAPD after the Rodney King debacle -- and a slew of other civic leaders told the council in a letter to politely back off.

The council had been deciding -- or I should say are still deciding -- whether to overturn the commission's decision to force gang and narcotic officers to supply detailed records of their assets and any joint accounts they may have.
Some argue it could leave police vulnerable to identity theft and will not root out corrupt officers as it is intended to do. But commission members argued they simply had no choice but to pass it if they were ever to get out from under the costly consent decree.
If passed, police have been threatening to walk off their narcotics and gang assignments, while both Sheriff Lee Baca and District Attorney Steve Cooley worry the result could be disastrous, putting public safety in danger as veteran officers abandon their posts.
Then swept in Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa on Tuesday with his "compromise" to get a federal order preventing lawyers from getting hold of police records -- at least in some cases. Either way, the police union isn't happy and it has filed a lawsuit.

Though I try to take note of every killing that happens in this city _whether it is published in our paper or not _ the violent weekend in South Los Angeles is especially troubling not only for the number of people hurt and lives taken but for the stark reminder of how easily one horrific act can lead to another.

From the LA Times:

The weekend killing of a Watts-area gang leader triggered a rash of retaliation shootings that has left at least two more young men dead and thirteen others wounded.

Brandon "B.L." Bullard, 25, whom police identified as a key member of the Grape Street Crips, was shot in the face at a party in a rented hall on Florence Avenue in South-Central Los Angeles about 1 a.m. Sunday and later died. (The coroner spelled Bullard's first name Branden.)

At least seven other people were wounded when more than one gunman sprayed the crowd at the party, which was also attended by members of the East Coast Crips, police said.

Since then, an innocent bystander has been killed in an area controlled by the East Coast Crips. Another man died Sunday outside the Jordan Downs housing project, a Grape Street stronghold, and six other men were injured in what police believe were related street shootings, all before Tuesday.

Let's start with earlier this year when Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and LAPD Chief William Bratton were touting the sixth year in a row of violent crime decreasing and gang violence diminishing. Our own paper even proclaimed it was safe to walk in Watts again. And people were asking how low could crime get, how far could Bratton take the homicide level.

Well, nobody needs to get too confident here because in the city that created the modern day gangster, there is no doubt that this culture isn't going to just disappear because there are more police on the street, more gang intervention workers or even more people willing to stand up and identify killers. It will take more.

Police have stepped up their investigative efforts but are afraid this could signal a return to vengeful retaliation killings in South Los Angeles.

"It was a very tragic and troubling weekend, for people that work so hard to address this issue," said LAPD Police Commissioner John Mack.

An assault with a deadly weapon was reported last night at 6 at Clymer Street and Rubio Avenue in Northridge. The victim finished playing basketball at approximately 6 p.m. While walking to his car, someone in a pick-up truck fired three rounds at him, grazing him on the left ankle. The victim’s friend drove him to the hospital. The victim was not very cooperative.

The James Gang

Here's one worth reading from USA Today about how the negative influence of family members has and can lead to criminal activity.

ANGOLA, La. — The fates of the three Caston brothers may well have been fixed at their births.

Obsessed with the lore of the outlaw James Gang, James "Tokie" Caston decided that his first two boys would bear the names of his heroes: Jesse and Frank James. By the time the third son, Sonny, arrived in 1967, the boys' futures were clear. At an early age, Frank Caston recalls, most people in tiny Lake Providence, La., referred to the brothers not as the Castons, but as the "James Gang."

"To be named after the worst outlaw in the country, I think you put a stamp on a person," says Jesse James Caston, 42, who was on the FBI's 10 Most Wanted list in 2000. "We never had a chance."

Their names were symbolic of a troubled upbringing that Jesse and Frank Caston say was marked by abuse and neglect. Today, all three brothers are convicted killers serving life sentences at Louisiana's state prison.

Their story is extraordinary but emblematic of what social scientists and law enforcement officials see as an increasingly complex and persistent problem: people who become criminals in part because of the influence of family members.

Read full story here.

Alex Dobuzinskis picked this story up this morning and posted it onto the dailynews.com breaking news section. Here's the story in full, for our friendly readers of "It's a crime":

GLENDALE - Police arrested three men and a juvenile who tried to use a shotgun to carjack a pick-up truck in Glendale, an officer said Tuesday.

Josue Alvarado, 24, Ronald Corena, 18, and Raul Reinoso, 18, are expected to be arraigned within a couple of days on carjacking charges, officials said.

The fourth suspect, a 17-year-old who was not identified because of his age, faces carjacking and attempted murder charges, said Officer John Balian, a spokesman for the Glendale Police Department.

The men approached a man in a pickup truck at Pacific Avenue and Vine Street in Glendale about 8 p.m. Sunday, Balian said.

The man planned to play basketball nearby and he was sitting in the truck to keep warm, waiting for friends to arrive, when one of the suspects tapped on his window with the barrel of a shotgun, Balian said.

A suspect fired at the frightened driver as he took off in his truck, and shotgun pellets hit the back of the truck, Balian said.

After the suspects drove off, the victim followed them and called police. Officers arrested the suspects near where the carjacking occurred, Balian said. The victim was not hurt in the attempted carjacking.

• A robbery was reported last night at 7:15 on Vineland Avenue, south of Camarillo Street in North Hollywood. Two people walked up to their victim and pushed him. Then one assailant pullled a gun and asked the victim if he was a cop before demanding his property and disappearing.

This has been a case that I've been tracking for a while. Talking with the robbery detectives over at the North Hollywood division this morning looking for news, I got the tip that arrests were made in a violent robbery that left a jewelry store owner injured in October. The male and female suspects are from South Los Angeles and came up to the Valley allegedly to commit their crime. They are now facing robbery and assault charges. The female suspect apparently told cops that her male accomplice recruited her into the scheme. Here's the story in full today.

STUDIO CITY - A male and female duo from South Los Angeles were in custody this morning in connection with a violent jewelry store robbery that left the owner injured and the suspects with $30,000, police said this morning.

Eric Jackson, a 37-year-old convicted robber, and Tranika Rispress, 20, were being held on robbery and assault charges at the Los Angeles County Jail.

They are believed responsible for the Oct. 11 robbery at Dana Kathryn Jewelry on Ventura Boulevard in Studio City, police said.

The suspects allegedly entered the store about 4:30 p.m. and began to browse and ask questions about jewelry inside the cases, police said. Five minutes later, the male suspect pulled out a blue steel pistol and pointed it at the face of the 17-year-old son of the owner while the female suspect grabbed his arm and pushed him against the wall, according to a police report.

The suspected gunman then ran behind the jewelry case and began punching and kicking the female owner in the face and neck, knocking her down, after she tried to trigger the silent alarm, police said. He then hopped the case, used the butt of the gun to smash it, and took a bracelet from inside, police said.

Both suspects then ran to the back of the store, grabbed a box of jewelry, ran out the front door and across Ventura to a Staples parking lot. There, they were seen getting into a silver Dodge Charger with tinted windows and after-market rims, police said.

The 46-year-old female store owner suffered injuries to her head and neck and was taken to a hospital. She has since recovered, police said.

In early November, police put out images from surveillance video taken at the store to the news media. In December, an anonymous caller identified the suspects, said Los Angeles Police Department Detective Mark O'Donnell.

Rispress was arrested at her home Thursday. She told police she grew up in the same neighborhood as Jackson and he recruited her to participate in the scheme, O'Donnell said.

Jackson was already in custody Jan. 26 in connection with violating terms of his parole in connection with an earlier robbery conviction when police served him with a warrant in connection with the Studio City robbery, O'Donnell said.

Police in Glendale and Whittier are combing through robbery reports to see whether these two were involved in other similar cases, O'Donnell said.

dailynews.com

• A shooting occurred Friday at 6:45 p.m. in the 5500 block of Bonner Avenue in North Hollywood. Two men approached in their vehicle, produced a gun, and shot at the victim. The victim ran so one suspect got out of the vehicle, chased him and fired several more rounds. One of the rounds struck the victim’s right arm. Both suspects fled in their vehicle. The victim was transported to Holy Cross Hospital. The case is possibly gang related. The victim is not being cooperative, said Los Angeles Police Detective Rich Wheeler.

• This is the police note of the homicide that I wrote about in the previous post. Police said the case occurred Friday about 11:45 p.m. on Strathern and Bellaire in North Hollywood. Firefighters responded to a radio call of a man down. On arrival, they saw a male, lying on the sidewalk unresponsive with a gunshot wound to the upper torso. The victim succumbed to his wounds and was pronounced at Holy Cross Hospital.
  

There was a gang-related homicide in North Hollywood Friday night. I just spoke with Detective Rich Wheeler, a supervisor over at the Los Angeles Police Department's North Hollywood station about it. No arrests have been made. Here's what I've got so far.

NORTH HOLLYWOOD - A 31-year-old man with no apparent gang ties was fatally wounded Friday night in a drive-by shooting two blocks away from his North Hollywood home, police said.

Alvaro Ely Calderon was on his way home from an am/pm mini market with a 40-ounce bottle of Miller Lite when somone inside a white vehicle fired shots, striking him at least four times before 11:40 p.m. on Bellaire Avenue near Blythe Street, said Los Angeles police Detective Rich Wheeler.

Calderon died later at a local hospital.

The gunman was inside possibly a Honda or Nissan car with as many as four people in it, Wheeler said.

Calderon, who is divorced and has a child has no known gang ties, nor any gang-related arrests, Wheeler said. He was living with his mother and father who were asleep at home at the time their son was shot.

"This is a murder you hate to get," Wheeler said. "There's not a lot of good, juicy clues to follow up on."

Anyone with information is asked to call Wheeler or Detective Martin Pinner at (818) 623-4075.

dailynews.com

I got this story late Friday and expect to be checking with the District Attorney's Office today to see whether or not charges are being filed. Stay tuned.

NORTH HILLS - A former employee with the Penny Lane Family Center in North Hills has been arrested in connection with having unlawful sex with a 16-year-old girl, police said this evening.

Eugene Portis Jr., 37, of Victorville, was arrested Jan. 15 at the North Hollywood Division police station in the 11600 block of Burbank Boulevard, according to the arrest blotter. Details about the arrest were not immediately available.

Portis was booked into the Los Angeles County Jail on suspicion of having unlawful sex with a minor and has since bailed out of jail after posting $20,000 bond. No charges have yet been filed, said Sandi Gibbons, a spokeswoman with the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office. But they could come before his sheduled court appearance on Feb. 5, Gibbons said. Since he has bailed out of jail, she said, police have more time to file their case with the D.A.

In a press release released Friday night, police said that Portis was previously employed by Penny Lane's Foster Care/Foster Family Agency. A 16-year-old Latina reported to police that while seeking drug counseling, Portis engaged in a sexual relationship with her, said Los Angeles Police Detective Karen Crawford. No other details were immediately available.

No one answered calls to Penny Lane late Friday.

It appeared Portis had been working at Penny Lane for about three years, according to a spring 2005 Penny Lane online newletter.

Police are asking that anyone who has information about Portis to call LAPD detectives Makarenko or Kimrey at (818) 623-4090.

dailynews.com

Here's a big shout-out to all the kids at Lanark Park for their "Extreme Teen" program, which is designed to give young kids positive alternatives for "things to do" on a Friday night. The staff down there deserves a lot of credit, as does the San Fernando Coalition on Gangs and the great community orgs that sponsor their chow time.

Van Nuys Rec started a similar program and (I hear) Sylmar Rec is looking to do something in the same vain.

Let all the naysayers "naysay" all they want. The reality is a lot of these kids have to elude gangs and drugs on a daily basis, and programs like these can only help - at the very least, it gives them a safe place to go.

Keep it up kids, but remember, think college, collEGE, COLLEGE!!!

Read their story here.

I got this story about the conviction of a man for a botched kidnap for ransom case that has been dragging out over the last six years. It was prosecuted out of the organized crime section and was handled by Glendale cops. I posted the story onto dailynews.com late last night. But here it is in full, in case you missed it. I'll try to tease out a few more details when I get settled in again tonight as I'm covering for a colleague.

GLENDALE - A 40-year-old ex-con has been found guilty of orchestrating a botched kidnapping for ransom conspiracy that backfired when both the intended target and the would-be kidnapper engaged in a gun battle and were wounded on the streets of Glendale six years ago.

In a downtown Los Angeles Superior courtroom, Arutyun "Gordo" Khrayan was found guilty Tuesday of three counts, including conspiracy to commit kidnap for ransom, attempted kidnap for ransom and assault with a semi-automatic firearm, said Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorney Marcia Daniel. Khrayan, who has been in jail since his June 2003 arrest, faces life in prison with the possibility of parole when he is sentenced March 28.

It was an unusual scheme concocted in the most unlikely of places by two men who were recovering drug users at the Tarzana Treatment Center in January 2002.

It began when an associate of Khrayan asked a parolee and admitted heroin user if he would kidnap an Armenian businessman in exchange for a new car.

It ended when the would-be kidnapper, James Patlan, and his intended target, Armen Mkrtumyan, were injured in a gunbattle on Los Feliz Boulevard in Glendale, court records show.

In an odd twist, after the shootout, both victim and assailant were taken to the same hospital for treatment of gunshot wounds. Oddly, Mkrtumyan happened to see Patlan being wheeled by his room and identified him as his assailant to police, Daniel said.

Mkrtumyan, who was in the bread distribution business, was legally carrying a gun the night he was attacked, Daniel said. He had a permit to carry a gun between his business and his car because he was the victim of a previous kidnap attempt a few months earlier, Daniel said.

Khrayan's associate Karapet "Gary" Davtyan was at the Tarzana Treatment Center as part of a court-ordered visit when he met and befriended Patlan, Daniel said.

Patlan admitted in court testimony that he was voluntarily at the center and the only reason he checked out was to join Davtyan in a criminal enterprise, Daniel said.

Phone records linked Davtyan with Khrayan. Davtyan has been convicted previously in the conspiracy and is serving a state prison sentence, Daniel said.

Khrayan was convicted of involuntary manslaughter in 1992 and joyriding in 1994, officials said.

"It was a difficult case in that my star witness had been a state prison inmate who was an admitted heroin addict and then to connect the defendant to the crime itself absent the identification by James Patlan was all primarily circumstantial evidence," Daniel said. "Yet the jury followed my request to reject the unreasonable and accept the reasonable in their findings that Arutyun Khrayan was indeed the man known only to Patlan as "Gordo" who had directed him on the night of the kidnapping to get the victim into the car using the gun."

A little overnight crime news item from the folks at LAPD Valley headquarters:

• A home invasion robbery was reported last night at 9:30 in the 6600 block of Farmdale Road in North Hollywood. The victim was at home watching TV when someone knocked on his front door. When he opened the door, the victim was confronted by two suspects wearing dark clothing. One suspect was holding a revolver and the other a semi-auto pistol. The suspects forced their way in, ripped the phone cords from the wall, tied the victim up, then ransacked the place before disappearing.

For any of you who have no clue what I am talking about when I say "financial disclosure," it's basically the LAPD's anti-corruption plan as required by the feds who after the Rampart Scandal demanded the
department undertake major reforms.

The LAPD wants the department's 600 gang and narcotic officers to provide detailed reports of their bank accounts, major debts and other properties they own both jointly and by themselves. The idea is that if any rogue cops are squirreling away money in these accounts, these reports will be red flags for auditors. So last year, the civilian Police Commission voted to implement the program.

Only problem is that the union, District Attorney Steve Cooley and even Sheriff Lee Baca oppose the plan, saying it won't root out corruption and could leave cops vulnerable to identity theft. Worse is that 600 officers are threatening to walk away from their positions in gangs and narcotics if they are forced to do this.

But Councilman Jack Weiss (head of the City Council's Public Safety Commitee) argued the council should have jurisdiction over it, and on Thursday brought it to his committee to decide whether the LAPD should
move forward with the plan.

Jason Kandel wrote a heart-breaking piece about Kristina Davis, a woman whose hard-luck life seemed to be on the upswing before her body was discovered on La Tuna Canyon Road. We wish her family well and we certainly hope her killer is caught.

Problematic life ends in tragedy on side of canyon road
Kristina Davis had skeletons in her closet, and her family knew it.

She had three children - one born addicted to methamphetamine - with two men, neither of whom she married. She hung out with the wrong crowd, got high often and chose terrible boyfriends.

Still, there was a glimmer of hope. She recently got a new job and with it came a new outlook on life.

That's why, despite all her problems, her family was stunned when police called Jan. 9 to tell them her body was found bound and gagged on the side of a San Fernando Valley canyon road with a bullet in her head.

Read the whole story here.

With a horde of cameras focusing in on them, a line of LAPD detectives joined with Chief William Bratton and Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa announced Tuesday the department had cracked one of 2007's most brazen and chilling crimes -- a 23-day-old baby shot allegedly by 18th Street gang members trying to collect "taxes" from street vendors near MacArthur Park. (see entry below)

The crime gripped the mostly immigrant community, and took a throng of police and media attention to break the silence.

As a grip of cameras gathered on Tuesday for the press conference announcing the news, several Spanish language reporters kept turning back to the untold assaults, shakedowns and intimidation that continues in the neighborhood.

Did you know about these, one reporter asked.

Yes, was the answer.

It's not going to go away soon.

Last year, the LAPD reported extortion cases citywide were up 200 percent from 14 to 28.

But those are the reported crimes and some believe just the tip of the iceberg. Police know that many, many immigrants fearful of retaliation and of being deported, will not talk to cops, and others fear retaliation.

Three weeks into the new year and the city of Angels is already seeing a jump in killings. Eight more than last year, including four in the Foothill Division alone. Now, nobody is saying that its cause for alarm. Everyone knows that that are spikes in the worst of human crimes with no explanation and then downturns, but even LAPD Chief William Bratton is taking notice.
"We are kind of all over the map in the sense that literally all over the city there is a mixed bang of gang, violence domestic violence," he told the five member police commission, in trying to explain the uptick. " We will be doing an intensive view of what's happening there."
If this gives the LAPD any comfort, when my year doesn't start out well, I like to restart according to the Chinese Calendar. It starts Feb. 7 and it's the year of the rat.

Police announced the arrests of eight gang members in connection with the slaying of a 23-day-old baby - you read it right, a 23-day-old baby - killed during a likely extortion attempt near MacArthur Park in September. The baby Luis Angel Garcia, was shot at Sixth Street and Burlington Avenue. Francisco Clemente, 37, also was shot and critically injured. Police said they believe Clemente was the intended target of an extortion attempt. This case is one of the most egregious that we've seen in a while. Wonder if this is the youngest murder victim. There's really not a whole lot more to say about this case. Stunned.

Here's a story I've been working on for some time. It seems LAPD is looking to install some cameras in strategic places throughout the Valley to help fight crime. The line of thought goes: With 468-square miles, nearly half of which is in the Valley, cameras can be at crime scenes even when cops can't. Funding to come through Councilmen Dennis Zine and Alarcon's offices. Meanwhile, the ACLU released a report in August critical of law enforcement's increased use of surveillance cameras in California.

• A robbery was reported Friday at 11:20 p.m. in the 6130 block of Coldwater Canyon Avenue in North Hollywood. The victim was walking toward her apartment when the suspect approached her, pushed her up against a vehicle, and demanded her property. The victim felt a hard object against her hip believing it to be a gun. The victim fearing for her life, gave up her property. But the victim asked the suspect not to take her purse. He advised her he would harm her if she did not comply.

• A robbery was reported at Friday at 8:20 p.m. in the 7200 block of Jordan Avenue in Canoga Park. The victim had just parked her vehicle in her garage when the suspect confronted her. The suspect exposed a gun in his waistband and demanded the victim's money. The victim in fear complied and gave the suspect cash and he told her not to call the police and ran away.
  

Just wanted to pay my respects to Dr. Martin Luther King on this, his national holiday. Although his life was ended prematurely by an assassin's bullet on April 4, 1968, he left a mark on this country that will last forever.
As Americans, we owe a great debt to Dr. King. He asked us to honor the values we held dearest - that all people be treated as equals in their quest for "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."
Thank you, Dr. King.

Here's the very latest on the body found under the freeway. We don't have a whole lot more than we had previously, but at least it's something. Stay tuned.

PORTER RANCH - The body of a man believed to be in his 20s that was found below a Ronald Reagan (118) Freeway overpass early Saturday morning has yet to be identified.

Caltrans workers picking up trash under the freeway overpass at Topanga Canyon Boulevard about 8:30 a.m. Saturday discovered the decomposing body in some twigs, thinking he was asleep, said Los Angeles Police Detective Mike Fesperman.

After taking a closer look, the workers noticed the man was dead and called police.

The man, who was wearing jeans and a jacket and had no ID, appeared to have been stabbed repeatedly in the chest area and dumped under the overpass, Fesperman said.

Fesperman said he could not tell the race of the victim and said the body had no tattoos.

An official cause of death will be determined by an autopsy.

A Caltrans worker found a body under a Ronald Reagan Freeway overpass in Porter Ranch over the weekend. Cops are saying it looks like it was the body of a man in his 20s who'd been repeatedly stabbed. Police were not giving up the man's name as they were waiting to notify family members first. A Caltrans worker discovered the body near Topanga Canyon Boulevard and called authorities at 8:28 a.m. Saturday I'll see what I can find out today about this latest mystery. It's been somewhat of a busy year for homicides in the Valley so far.

There have been at least five victims in three incidents. Here's a recap. If anyone out there knows any of these folks, please feel free to give us a holler.

• The stepdaughter of man whose body was found asphyxiated over the weekend in a Sylmar motel room has been charged along with two accused gang members in a robbery conspiracy in connection with the case, officials said.

• Walter Garcia, 38, stabbed his ex-girlfriend Damaris "Didi" Quiles, 35, and her mother, Carmen, 73, to death. Police said Garcia stabbed ex-girlfriend and her mother, then ran from neighbors down an alley where he discarded the knife. He sped away in a black Mercedes, parked the car on Pasadena's Colorado Street Bridge and plunged to his death.

• A woman whose body was found shot in the head on the side of La Tuna Canyon Road was identified as Kristina Davis, 24, and detectives are still searching for her killer.

SYLMAR - The stepdaughter of man whose body was found asphyxiated over the weekend in a Sylmar motel room has been charged along with two accused gang members in a robbery conspiracy in connection with the case, officials said today.

Itzel Ponce Gutierrez, a 19-year-old waitress from Sylmar, was charged in connection with the death of her stepfather, Jose Eugenio Carrillo, 45, whose strangled body was found Saturday at 9:30 a.m. at the Country Side Inn, at 14955 Roxford St., in Sylmar.

She faces one count of robbery conspiracy in a case in which Los Angeles Police Department Detective Gene Parshall said she allegedly set up a robbery in which she and two alleged accomplices took Carrillo's Chevrolet Avalanche to ATMs and used his credit cards to withdraw cash.

Parshall did not say why Carrillo was killed or offer details about the slaying.

"They planned to rob this guy for his car and money," Parshall said. "The sad thing is that the stepdaughter set up her stepdad who raised her her whole life."

Police quickly identified two suspects who were caught in their neighborhood in the 14200 block of Calvert Street in Van Nuys the day after the slaying, said Los Angeles Police Detective Jim Freund.

They were identified as Armando "Tripps" Torrez, 23, and 17-year-old Anthony Hernandez, aka "Little Shadow" or "Habit." They are accused members of Barrio Van Nuys.

They have been charged with murder, robbery, burglary, lying in wait, and a gang enhancement, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office.

Torrez is an ex-con who spent two years, eight months in state prison custody stemming from two convictions in 2002 - assault with a deadly weapon and grand theft, according to the California Department of Corrections.

A robbery was reported last night at 8:50 at a Petco at 12800 Ventura Boulevard in Studio City. Two male black suspects bought some items then pushed the employee to the ground. A second suspect acted as a lookout while the other suspect placed his hand behind his back to his waistband and demanded that the register be opened. The suspects took cash and fled on foot in an unknown direction.

Cops found anti-Semitic scrawlings on residential walls in a predominantly Jewish neighborhood in Tarzana Thursday morning. The vandalism follows several high-profile anti-Semitic crimes last year. In May, Councilman Jack Weiss' Sherman Oaks office was defaced with swastikas and anti-Semitic writing. In August, several orthodox Jews were attacked in pellet gun shootings around Los Angeles. latimes.com

Since men are most often the aggressors in domestic violence abuse and "crimes of passion" attacks and killings, are there really people out there who think an "emotional" woman can't be president?

Just asking.

And by the way, that absurd question would come up if said female candidate was a Republican, as well.

Anyway - guy argues with girlfriend, guy shoots girlfriend, police said.

A home invasion robbery was reported at 3 this morning in the 14300 block of Chandler Boulevard in Sherman Oaks. The victims were at a club in Hollywood when they met two male blacks. Later the victims invited them back to their residence for drinks and to play pool. While at the residence, one of the victims went to sleep, while the other two victims entertained the suspects. One suspect then pulled a gun and had the two victims lie face down in the bathroom, while they removed property and then disappeared.

A roundup of crime stories around the region ...

Suspected rapist nabbed
A suspected rapist who is charged with invading a home in the Wilshire area New Year's Day is behind bars. abc7.com

Man pleads in murder case
A state prison inmate has pleaded guilty to second-degree murder for the nearly 35-year-old killing of an elderly woman severely beaten in her Los Angeles home following a burglary. Jesse Clifton Wimberly was immediately sentenced to five years to life in state prison in the killing of 86-year-old Anna Lockner. KESQ.com

Arrest in threat at Loyola
Loyola Marmyount University had a day of heightened security after a shooting threat appeared online. The Los Angeles Police Department arrested Carlos Heurta, 21-year-old student at Loyola Marymount University, near his apartment on campus for suspicion of making criminal threats. The suspect allegedly posted, "I am going to shoot and kill as many people as I can until which time I am incapacitated or killed by the police." theloyolan.com

Case continues in rogue cop robbery ring
A former Long Beach police officer took the stand in his own defense Wednesday, describing himself as an unwitting participant in a home-invasion robbery ring that victimized suspected drug dealers and their families between 1999 and 2001. Testifying on his own behalf, Joseph Ferguson, 33, said he was hired to do surveillance work by former Los Angeles Police Officer Ruben Palomares - who since has pleaded guilty to orchestrating the criminal ring and has corroborated the government's case against Ferguson. presstelegram.com

Hey, All - I've been out of the blogging universe for awhile but expect to be back in the loop. A big shout out to Jason Kandel for doing such an excellent job of keeping this site moving. And if you haven't seen his "Portraits of Grief," which feature loved ones of homicide victims telling their stories with photos, please do (sorry, can't link to it - you can find it by clicking on the Valley Homicides graph).

In today's paper, I wrote a piece about Kevin Lopez, a 23-year-old who was killed in October when he decided to put off going to bed and meet his best friend and two others outside his house to talk.
Since police have made no arrests in the case, Lopez's uncle, Roger Avila, contacted me and asked if I could write a story about his nephew.

Today, I received three heart-felt e-mails from Roger, as well as Kevin's mother and aunt, all thanking me for writing about Kevin, a young man who is obviously missed by his family and who leaves behind a wife and a 15-month old son.

If you haven't, please read this story. If you think you know who might be responsible, please call police.

These types of stories are among the most important any journalist can write. We like to say that it's a "public service," and it certainly is. But it's much more than that.

When a person shares with me the most intimate details surrounding the trauma of losing a loved one, I'm blown away. The moments after such an interview often require several deep breaths on my part. Ultimately, I'm honored and I try, and will always do so, to tell their stories as best I can.

So to Kevin's wife Jennifer, his buddy Wilder and his entire family, I say thank you.

Noticing a trend here. A couple of domestic violence related killings in the area lately.

This one last night, though, was a role reversal from the one last week. Police arrested a 26-year-old woman in connection with shooting her estranged husband to death in Silver Lake.

Delilah Acevedo, 26, was booked on suspicion of murder in the death of Alejandro Palacio, 31.

Palacio was killed about 2 a.m. yesterday in the 3600 block of West Bellevue Avenue.

dailynews.com

Last week, we reported the violent deaths of three people in a domestic case.

Walter Garcia, 38, stabbed his ex-girlfriend Damaris "Didi" Quiles, 35, and her mother, Carmen, 73, to death. Police said Garcia stabbed ex-girlfriend and her mother, then ran from neighbors down an alley where he discarded the knife. He sped away in a black Mercedes, parked the car on Pasadena's Colorado Street Bridge and plunged to his death.

dailynews.com

A couple of noteworthy incidents reported overnight in the Valley:

• A robbery was reported last night at 5:45 in the 13700 block of Victory Boulevard in Van Nuys. The victim had just withdrawn money from the Wells Fargo Bank and headed to a travel agency to purchase a vacation package. As the victim pulled into the parking lot of the business, a male black carrying a gun approached the victim. The suspect ordered the victim to the ground and removed his property. The suspect then ran away.

• A business robbery was reported last night at 5 in the 16000 block of Ventura Boulevard in Encino. The suspect entered the pharmacy and pointed a gun at the pharmacist. The suspect demanded several bottles of narcotics from the pharmacist. The pharmacist complied and gave the suspect an unknown quantity of various medication bottles before running away, last seen going east on Ventura. There were no injuries.
  

Getting back into the morning crime roundup to get your day started ...

Putting a face on a homicide
My night counterpart, Rick Coca, writes today about the Oct. 20 murder of Kevin Lopez, a 23-year-old musician with a wicked sense of humor, gunned down too early after agreeing to meet friends outside the home he shared with his wife, Jennifer, and his then-13-month-old son. dailynews.com

Como?
LAPD has a new translation device. latimes.com

This'll get your blood boiling
NEWPORT BEACH - Two teenage girls have been arrested on suspicion of participating in the videotaped beating of a mentally retarded girl which was later posted on the social-networking Web site MySpace. dailynews.com

A nod to laobserved for catching this one. Los Angeles Police Chief Wililam Bratton is touted as "the most influential crime fighter in recent history" in the February issue of Playboy, on sale starting today.

Joe Domanick, a long-time chronicler of the nation's second-largest police force in the nation, pens the piece with the headline "Supercop."

Bratton is rumored to be on the short list to head the Department of Homeland Security or the FBI in a Hillary Clinton administration. He’s so influential that his archnemesis, former New York City mayor and now Republican presidential hopeful Rudolph Giuliani—the man who fired him—twice made pilgrimages to L.A. last year in thinly veiled attempts to neutralize Bratton in the 2008 elections. laobserved.com

In 2004, I shadowed Bratton for a story of the 12-hour day in the life of the celebrity chief.

The day started at 7:45 a.m. at KTLA studios where Bratton was making a pitch for the half cent sales tax for more cops. Here's an excerpt from that piece, a look inside the chief's office at Parker Center:

His sixth-floor office in Parker Center is filled with police memorabilia: shiny New York City police badges displayed in boxes; baseball caps; British police-style bobby hats; toy police cars.

Bratton picks up a 1954 book called ``Your Police,'' about the New York Police Department. He used to check the book out from the Boston Library as a kid. Now a tattered copy sits on a shelf next to his meeting table. It cemented his views about becoming a cop.

On the floor next to a leather executive sofa sit several framed magazine covers such as Time and other general interest newsmagazines and assorted trade magazines that feature him on the cover. Assorted books about crime fighting line the shelves, along with pictures of Theodore Roosevelt.

On one wall is a shadow box with a photo of Theodore Roosevelt and a quote, ``The Best Executive is the one who has sense enough to pick good men to do what he wants done, and self-restraint enough to keep from meddling.''

On another shelf are photos of Bratton shaking hands with FBI Director Robert Mueller. Bratton with the elder President Bush. Photos of his wife, trial attorney and Court TV anchor Rikki Klieman, hang prominently above his desk.

The woman whose body was found shot in the head on the side of La Tuna Canyon Road last week was identified as Kristina Davis, 24, and detectives are still searching for her killer. Foothill Division homicide detectives were going to talk with the family today to find out more about the woman. We'll keep you posted.

dailynews.com

There will likely be a lot of fireworks in this one. We'll be watching this closely.

Looks like the City Council will get into an arm wresting match with those involved in the federal consent decree set up to prevent the same abuses of those cops in the Rampart Division years ago.

Our veteran expert downtown, Rick Orlov, today writes ... In a showdown that could determine the fate of a federal consent decree governing