Results tagged “West Covina” from Crime Scene

A shooting in West Covina Tuesday night left one woman dead and an unidentified person injured, according to news reports this morning The homicide is the sixth in West Covina this year and 77th in the San Gabriel Valley since January.

This from the U.S. Department of Justice: 

       A former Huntington Park Police Officer who for a time worked on federal drug trafficking investigations was sentenced today to 15 years in federal prison for stealing cocaine, methamphetamine and marijuana from narcotics dealers and then selling the drugs for personal profit.

        Sergeant Alvaro Murillo, 45, of West Covina, who was called El Padrino (The Godfather) by his co-conspirators, was sentenced late this morning by United States District Judge Stephen V. Wilson.

        The sentencing follows a trial in May in which a federal court jury found Murillo guilty of two drug conspiracies, one count of extortion and one count of submitting a false tax return. The evidence at trial showed that Murillo orchestrated six thefts, which yielded him nearly 700 pounds of marijuana, four pounds of methamphetamine and well over 10 pounds of cocaine. Murillo attempted a seventh theft of 30 kilograms of cocaine - "the big one," as he called it - but that was not successful because the target was an undercover federal agent who was posing as a drug dealer. Sentencing papers filed by the government argued that Murillo was involved in additional drug thefts not discussed at his trial.

        From late 2002 through the fall of 2006, Murillo worked with informants - who sometimes called themselves the "black tactic group" - to identify drug dealers from whom they could steal narcotics. Once a target was identified, Murillo checked law enforcement databases to obtain information about the dealer and to make sure there were no legitimate investigations into the target. After planning the thefts, the informants would trick the drug dealer into turning over narcotics or otherwise cause the drug dealer to leave without payment, often with Murillo in the area to act as backup. Once they had secured the narcotics, Murillo and the people involved in the thefts made arrangements to store and then to sell the stolen drugs. Testimony at trial showed that Murillo typically demanded to receive the sale of drug proceeds in cash, and the jury heard evidence that he received training on money laundering tactics used by narcotics traffickers.

An unidentified man was found shot to death early Thursday morning in a green belt near Gingrich Park.

Neighbors reported hearing two shots about 11:15 p.m. Wednesday evening, but no call was made to police until after midnight.

No one in the neighborhood apparently knew the man, described as black and in his 20s.
View Body found in a larger map

Perhaps this sort of news comes in threes:

A woman was killed in Covina. Police are now seeking her boyfriend.

The event is going to happen outside Applebee's and runs this afternoon betwen 4:30 p.m. and 6 p.m. according to organizers.

Looks like crime in the Valley soared over Easter Week. Shootings in La Puente, Rosemead and a guy in West Covina beat and sliced up his wife, according to the cops.

I`m staring at a black and white photo taken inside the Citrus Courthouse in the early 1960s.

A defendant is sitting at the counsel table. His chin rests on clenched fists. Cameras are in his face.

In the photo, press photographers surround Dr. Raymond Bernard Finch. After three sensational trials, a jury has convicted the West Covina doctor and his mistress, Carole Tregoff, of killing Finch's wife, Barbara.

The verdict has just been read - the cameras and reporters are there to record everything, just as they had from Day One.

In July 1959, Barbara Finch turned up dead on Larkhill Drive. Someone found her body stuffed between shrubs lining the long driveway leading up to her split-level home above the South Hills Country Club. Finch had been shot to death.

Cameras in the courthouse were part of the scenery.

It's something you will never see in a local newspaper again.

Just last week, one of our photographers took a photo of attorneys having a discussion in the lobby of Pasadena Superior Court.

A terse letter from Alan Parachini, county court spokesman and onetime ACLU flak, followed. It noted that our photographer was in violation of local rule such and such.

This from a guy who represented the ACLU.

We took the photo off the Web. Times have changed.

It's been almost 50 years, but this week another woman turned up dead on Larkhill Drive. Her name was Susan Molina. The home

where she lived and died overlooks the back yard of the Finch split-level.

Investigators believe someone bludgeoned Molina to death then stuffed her body in a closet.

That's about all we know, obtaining that much information from police was a struggle.

It's interesting to compare media coverage and police techniques of 50 years ago. Especially fascinating is seeing in black and white the much closer and far more trusting relationship cops and reporters had in 1959.

In the Finch case, press photographers got a shot of the body with the help of a cop who illuminated the crime scene with a flashlight.

In the Molina case, cops faxed a dry, tersely worded four-paragraph press release several hours after they had wrapped up their investigation.

When Finch's husband was arrested, a photographer and reporter interviewed the doctor in his jail cell.

By contrast, West Covina police announced the arrest of two persons in connection with a homicide that occurred Wednesday night and tried to withhold the names.

Forget about a jailhouse interview. Times have changed.

Film has been replaced by microchips. Newspapers are rapidly dwindling in readers and stature.

Cops who once worked homicides because they had a passion for justice have been replaced by cops who are concerned about their clearance rates.

A cop who would have held a flashlight now has to worry about how evidence will withstand the scrutiny of a DAs office concerned about getting convictions. They dot I's and cross T's to appease appelate judges willing to put cold-blooded killers back on the street because of a technicality.

Times have changed - maybe for the better ...

They don't trust us. Why should we trust them?

A West Covina woman found dead in a closet has presented a vexing mystery to investigators.

How did Susan Molina, 44, die?

The Los Angeles Department of Coroner says blunt force trauma, but has deferred a finding until it has a complete toxicology report.

West Covina homicide investigators have taken the case, but released little information.

Those investigators told several witnesses they were looking for a mystery woman and a car in connection with the case. We're tracking down as much as we can...

If you have any ideas, share 'em.

 

Amanda Baumfeld reports:

WEST COVINA - Authorities said Monday police are not certain the firebombings of two homes in the South Hills are linked, despite the fact that both incidents took place within weeks of each other on the same tiny street.

Early Saturday morning, the home of Robert Ho, 51, in the 3200 block of Hampton Drive was practically gutted after several incendiary devices were hurled through windows. Six weeks ago, Ho said he stopped a similar attack on a neighbor's home.

"We are not 100 percent sure they are related," West Covina police Lt. Ron Mitchell said. "It's quite a great deal of stuff to happen in one area. There might be a connection."

Neither the police nor Ho could provide a damage estimate following the fire. The West Covina Police department has neither contacted federal officials with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms nor the FBI, agencies typically charged with investigating firebombings and arsons, Mitchell said.

 Esquire ran the definitive Moe story on its Web site today. The tale, by Richard Shapiro, tells the story of Moe through the words of St. James and LaDonna Davis. It's a touching tale much of it familiar to residents of West Covina and the San Gabriel Valley.

Here's the final paragraph of the piece titled "St. James, LaDonna and Little Moe: The Worst Story I Ever Heard."

After all the years St. James and LaDonna shared with Moe and everything they've endured, how could he be gone forever? How could they not someday see their boy again?

The California Supreme Court Thursday upheld the death sentence of a Valinda man who was high on PCP when he murdered a West Covina police officer in 1983.

In 1984 a jury convicted Michael Anthony Jackson of Valinda and sentenced him to death for killing West Covina police officer Kenneth Wrede. A memorial to Wrede stands

"I'll give you my upfront opinion," West Covina police Chief Frank Wills said. "It was a good decision, but franklu it's way too late. I'm disgusted by the whole criminal justice system. This was a police officer who died face down in the gutter in a pool of his own blood."

Here's a link to the opinion.

And a link to a Web site where Jackson is seeking some female companionship:

Here's a quote from his advertisement:

My name is Michael Jackson, I'm interested in females only.  All human shade of color...Age from 25-50.  A real female that was born one, not act like one.  Someone who is not shy in front of the camera.  I enjoy meditation, poetry, playing all sports and reading about history.  All this give me power, intelligence, awareness, creativity.   Mental stimulation is all I have to offer and if you have an open mind then that will be provide to you.  Straightforward and honesty is a must.  Let refresh in ourselves the faith that all are equal and deserve the love and sympathy of others, irrespective of their position.  Don't you think its time for you to pick up your pen and let start the process of being each others friend.  

 

At a preliminary hearing for a West Covina man charged in the brutal slayings of a teenaged couple out in San Bernardino,  Collin Lee McGlaughlin's attorney called his client mentally unstable and unfit for trial.

Here's the story from the San Bernardino Sun. Testimony continues today in the case:

Just weeks before he was arrested in connection with the shotgun killings of 19-year-old Christopher Cody Thompson and his girlfriend, Bodhisattva "Bodhi" Sherzer-Potter, 16, Collin Lee McGlaughlin was taken to the doctor by his father to see about getting psychiatric medication, according to testimony at a preliminary hearing in Barstow Superior Court.

During an interview with sheriff's homicide Detective Robert Alexander, McGlaughlin's father, Wayne, said his son had become "frightening." He also said that about three weeks before his son's arrest he had taken him to the doctor to see about getting medication to treat his erratic behavior, Alexander said during his testimony.

McGlaughlin, 19, and Covina residents David Smith, 20, and Cameron Thomson, 17, have all been charged with the Jan. 5 slayings of Thompson, of Apple Valley, and Bodhi, of Silver Lakes.

Stephan Williams declined to comment as to whether his client's mental state will be the crux of his defense if the case goes to trial.

 

A newspaper in Tijuana reports this morning that the last suspect in the killing of a West Covina woman was captured Monday afternoon in one of the Colonias.

Thanks to a commenter on this blog for pointing out the link.

Here's a translated version of the story:

Maurtua Victor Manuel, who has an arrest warrant for homicide in Los Angeles, California he was arrested by elements of the State Preventive Police (PEP).

The arrest of the subject of 19 years, the corporation held that police officers at the embassies of the avenue colony Colonial Villa around the 16:20 hours. 

Now the place where he was arrested escandalizando in public and screaming sounding words.

By attempting to be arrested by agents of the PEP, the suspect claimed that he could not do anything for being an American citizen.

In the C4 was confirmed that Victor Manuel Maurtua, with the arrest warrant in the neighboring state of California since last May 15. 

As he was transferred to the offices of the PEP to make it available to the U.S. authorities.

 

A teenager suspected in a carjacking incident held off police for five hours Thursday evening, before he ultimately surrendered in El Monte. Here's the story from reporter Robert Hong:

WEST COVINA - A teenage carjacking suspect was in custody late Thursday, after leading a standoff with police for more than five hours, officials said.

The boy surrendered about 11:40 p.m. after police used tear gas, according to El Monte police Detective Ralph Batres. No one was injured, he added.

An El Monte police investigation lead police to surround an apartment building in the 200 block of North Grand Avenue where they believed to have located two "people of interest" in a pair of carjackings in El Monte and Baldwin Park and a vehicle theft in El Monte.

When police arrived about 6:30 p.m., one teen boy came out peacefully, while the other barricaded himself inside an apartment, police said

We first heard about this assault this morning. The facts just came in about an hour ago. Hopefully the West Covina PD will develop a composite drawing and release it to the public.

Here's the top of Dan Tedford's story:

WEST COVINA - A 17-year-old girl was sexually assaulted on her way to school this morning after a man pulled her into some nearby bushes and attacked her for several minutes, according to West Covina police.

The girl was walking at 6 a.m. on Shadow Oak Drive near Gemini Street where a man in a black-hooded sweatshirt was walking about 100 yards behind her, police said.

About a minute later, the man grabbed her from behind and pulled her into the bushes near Shadow Oak Park, police said.

A guy dressed as a cop, wearing an oval badge stopped a woman in West Covina the other night and made some lewd comments. Now he's being sought by police as an imposter.

Here's Brian Day's story:

WEST COVINA - Officials are seeking a man who pulled over a woman while pretending to be a police officer and made sexual comments before being scared off Friday

The incident occurred just after midnight on a side street near Francisquito and Conlon Avenues, West Covina police Lt. Dan Brooks said.

A woman in her 30s was driving when a man driving a "police-style" car used a white spotlight and loudspeaker system to order her to pull over.

When the man, who was wearing a blue uniform, possibly a police uniform, with no patches and an oval-shaped badge, approached the woman, he began making sexual comments, Brooks said.

The woman became panicked and set off her car alarm, which prompted the police impersonator to flee, the lieutenant said.

The suspect was described as a white man in his 40s with brown hair, a bushy mustache and a muscular build, he added.

 

According to the West Covina PD, James Westly Essix, 18, of La Puente is wanted in connection with as many as five local residential burglaries.

A juvenile crime partner in West Covina custody apparently gave up Essix during interogation.

 

Mongul author Ruben "Doc" Cavazos, Mongol Little Rubes, Mongol Ogre and Mongol Bouncer attend the Book Expo Celebrity Dinner at Restaurant 208 on May 30, 2008 in Beverly Hills, California.

 

Doc, Little Rubes, and Bouncer are all mentioned in the 177-page federal indictment handed down against the gang Tuesday.

Here's a mention of "Bouncer":

COUNT THIRTY-THREE

[21 U.S.C. §§ 841(a)(1), 841(b)(1)(B)(viii)]

On or about July 25, 2006, in Los Angeles County, within the

Central District of California, defendant PETER SOTO, also known

as "Bouncer," knowingly and intentionally distributed at least

five grams, that is, approximately 13.5 grams, of actual

methamphetamine, a schedule II controlled substance.

 

Here's a mention of "LIttle Rubes"

COUNT SIXTY-FIVE

[18 U.S.C. § 924(c)]

On or about May 24, 2008, in Los Angeles County, within the

Central District of California, defendants RUBEN CAVAZOS, JR.,

also known as "Lil Rubes," and BRIAN MCCAULEY, knowingly

possessed a firearm, namely, an H&K .45 caliber handgun, bearing

serial number 25-093654, during and in relation to, and in

furtherance of, a crime of violence, namely, the racketeering

conspiracy set forth in Count One of this Indictment, a violation

of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1962(d).

 

 

The US attorney wanted to own the trademarked logo of the Mongols outlaw motorcycle gang and a judge granted that request Wednesday, according to an Associated Press reporter who attended an afternoon hearing in federal court:

Here's the top of the story:

LOS ANGELES -- A federal judge in Los Angeles bars the Mongols motorcycle gang from selling or distributing its trademarked logo after authorities arrested dozens of its members in six states.

 

No word yet if Ruben Cavazos has appeared in court or entered a plea. Cavazos, a former president of the group, is targeted as the head of the conspiracy.