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I've been to lots of events at Santa Anita through the years. None was as emotional as Thursday's second race, which featured Return of the King, a scrappy 7-year-old chestnut gelding with Martin Pedroza aboard.

The connections, Pedroza, trainer David Bernstein and family and friends who filled in for deceased owners Joseph, James and Charles Ortega, saw their horse glide to a come-from-behind victory. They shed tears of joy and sadness.

Jockey Martin Pedroza told me he thought he was guided by angels throughout the race.

Jockey Danny Sorenson told me that despite the competitive nature of the racing business, most of his peers wanted to see Pedroza win.

"It's like Seabiscuit," he said. "You want to root for the underdog."

Here's the top of Friday's story:

ARCADIA - Tears freely flowed Thursday at Santa Anita when Return of the King stepped into the Winner's Circle.

Friends and family members of Joseph, James and Charles Ortega had come to see their seven-year-old chestnut gelding race for perhaps the last time from the barn of trainer David Bernstein.

The three Ortegas were among nine family members slain at a Covina home on Christmas Eve by Bruce Pardo, the estranged husband of Joseph's daughter Sylvia.

"This was special," Bernstein said. "It was hard to keep from crying from the moment he left the paddock."

Here's the photo caption:  

Jockey Martin Pedroza on Return of the King, center, owned by James
Ortega, takes the lead as they win the 2nd race at Santa Anita Park
Thursday, January 8, 2009 in Arcadia. The Ortega family was killed
during the Christmas Eve massacre in Covina. (SGVN/Staff Photo by
Sarah Reingewirtz/SVCITY)

 

Rocha Family and Friends Day at the Races Presents Ortega Family Benefit (Profit from proceeds will go to Ortega Family Trust) February 28th, 2009 Santa Anita Race Track Arcadia, CA Gates Open at 10:30am First Post: 12:30pm Cost: $25.00 adults (18 and over) $10.00 children (17 and under) Includes: Admission, parking, racing program and steak lunch R.S.V.P. by Feb. 15th Jerry Rocha 626-945-6729 jrocha@dtsone.com Jim Rocha 909-267-8623 jimr@adamscampbell.com

Return of the King, the JJO Stables horse owned by Joseph and James Ortega, runs the second race at Santa Anita this afternoon. Post time is about 1:30 p.m.

Here's today's program. Return of the King is the 5/2 morning line favorite.

The Ortegas were among nine people slain in Covina on Christmas Eve by Bruce Pardo. All the slain were members of the same family and relatives of Pardo's estranged wife Sylvia.

As for the race, its a 6 furlong claimer, with prices between $40,000 and $35,000.  -- which means the horse is for sale and could be claimed by another owner this afternoon.

Martin Pedroza will ride. The consensus of handicappers working for the SGVN predicts Return of the King will find the winner's circle.

The Covina City Council will hold a special meeting tonight at 7:30 p.m. to discuss the Christmas Eve Massacre and its affect onthe community. This from the Council agenda:

NEW BUSINESS

NB 1. Update and discussion of possible actions as may be necessary to respond to the

Christmas Eve Homicides

We've rounded up al our coverage of the Covina Christmas Eve slayings in one spot on the Internet. You can find the stories here.

Here's the lead in:

On Christmas Eve, 2008, Bruce Pardo dressed in a Santa Claus suit, armed himself with guns and drove to a house in Covina where his ex-wife, Syliva Pardo, was celebrating with her family. When an 8-year-old girl answered his knock, he shot her in the face. He continued inside, executing Sylvia and other members of her family. He then sprayed fuel in the home, prompting it to catch fire. Eight people died there. Pardo later killed himself, closing out one of the most violent outbursts in the history of the San Gabriel Valley.

Among the Interactive extras on the page are the chilling 911 call from Sylvia's sister and portions of the divorce records.

We've also rounded up photographs, videos, and summaries of the evidence.

Also on the site, is Amanda Baumfeld's latest story regarding plans for a private memorial for the victims.

A Los Angeles man has been charged in a December shooting that left two people dead, one of them a bystander who worked at the sheriff's Compton Station, as City News Services reports below.

LOS ANGELES -- A Los Angeles man was charged Friday with capital murder for the Dec.
20 shooting deaths of two people, including an innocent bystander who worked as a records clerk at the sheriff's station in Compton.
Leonard Mitchell, 46, is scheduled to be arraigned Jan. 15 at the downtown Los Angeles courthouse in connection with the slayings of Alexander Castro, 23, and sheriff's civilian employee Adriana Pizarro, 34.
The murder charges include the special circumstance allegation of multiple murders, which could make Mitchell eligible for the death penalty if convicted. Prosecutors are expected to decide later whether to go that route.
A confrontation between Mitchell and Castro precipitated the gunfire, authorities said.
It appeared that Castro most likely had gone to the area looking for someone he thought was
seeing his girlfriend, and that he got into a verbal altercation with Mitchell, who was not the
man he was seeking, according to Detective Kelle Baitx of the Los Angeles Police Department's Newton Division.
Castro -- who was inside his vehicle -- was hit several times, including twice in the head.
Pizarro was about 150 feet away outside her mother's home at Central Avenue and 50th Street in Los Angeles when she was struck in the eye by a stray bullet. She was taken to County-USC Medical Center and pronounced dead about an hour later.
Mitchell was arrested Tuesday by the Los Angeles Police Department's Newton Division and was jailed without bail.

A woman and her companion who live in an El Monte motel room at the Gibson Inn where a murder was committed recently call the room the "Murder Room."

This is just one of the things reporters Brian Day and Rebecca Kimitch learned after several tours of El Monte motels along Valley Boulevard. Here's how their story, scheduled to see print on Sunday, will begin:

With one-third of El Monte's murders this year at or near several motels, some El Monte elected officials are becoming increasingly concerned about crime near the businesses. Meanwhile, police officials dispute assertions that crime in motels is significantly worse than elsewhere, but do say the motels can be problematic.

Reporter Amanda Baumfeld, who has been covering the Christmas Eve Massacre since day one caught up with Sylvia Pardo's best frend, a Pomona woman who shared her memories Monday. Here's the top of the story:

COVINA - Roxanne Jauregui talked to her best friend Sylvia Pardo nearly every day for the last 30 years.

Monday she remained unable to cope with the fact that Sylvia is gone. So, Jauregui continues to leave messages on a cell phone owned by Sylvia trying to hold onto their daily routine.

"I continue to talk to her as if she was still here," Jauregui, of Pomona, said. "We would talk almost everyday after work; she would tell me her private issues...I know her inside and out. I still believe that she is going to call me."

What kind of monster systematically executes nine people with semiautomatic handguns, takes out a homemade flamethrower festooned with Christmas wrapping and burns a two-story house to the ground?

What kind of monster takes out a whole family gathered together to celebrate the birth of Jesus, the Prince of Peace?

What kind of monster rigs his rental car to explode with the hope that more victims will be added to the unfathomable death toll?

What kind of monster could be so enraged by a failed marriage and an acrimonious divorce that he could be driven to commit the most evil acts imaginable?

Those questions have been on my mind since Christmas Day. It was then we first learned that Bruce Pardo, 45, of Montrose killed nine members of the same family who had gathered at a Covina home on Knollcrest Drive.

An explosion from the blaze Pardo set off seared the Santa suit to his flesh. His getaway to Moline, Ill., or Davenport, Iowa, became unlikely.

Pardo, who spent months planning his attack, slipped past police responding to the horrific scene and made his way to a brother's home in Sylmar.

The questions began to form in the minds of first responders who spent early Christmas morning grappling with the monster's appetite for destruction.

But the monster did not stick around to answer the questions. The monster took the coward's way out. He saved the last semi-automatic round for himself, completing the purchase of his one-way ticket to hell.

As a result, there is no accounting for the pure evil of the monster other than facts that could apply to anyone.

The monster lived among us.

The monster had a family.

The monster felt affection for his dog.

The monster achieved high grades in high school.

The monster attended college.

The monster worked as a software engineer.

The monster's friends recalled him as quiet and unassuming.

The monster spent his Sunday evenings ushering the children's Mass at Holy Redeemer Catholic Church in Montrose.

The monster wished acquaintances Merry Christmas.

The questions and the irrelevance of the answers loomed large on Knollcrest Drive on Monday morning -- five days after the massacre that likely claimed the lives of Jose and Alicia Ortega, two of their sons, two of their daughters-in-law, two daughters and a grandson.

I went there hoping to learn something -- anything.

I left there with a profound feeling of despair and sadness for a loving and close-knit family taken out by a selfish, soulless and sociopathic monster who turned a day of joy into something we will never understand or comprehend.

Brian Day reports that KFI's top-notch crime reporter Eric Leonard upped the ante in the tale fo Bruce Pardo this afternoon.

Leonard is reporting that Pardo planned to not only kill the Ortega family, but expected to find his own mother at that same Christmas party.

Additionally, Leonard is apparently reporting that Pardo's second getaway car, was located close to the home of Scott Nord, the attorney who handled Sylvia Pardo's divorce case. The workign theory is that Pardo plotted to kill Nord and his family before making a final getaway.

Brian's working up a version of the story that we will release on line as soon as the details become clear.

Here's a link to Leonard's latest piece on the Christmas Eve massacre.

This from Glendale attorney Scott Nord, who is representing the surviving members of the Ortega family:

The events of Christmas Eve have left the families devastated by the horrific acts of Mr. Pardo. In their time of grief they ask that the media respect their privacy and provide solitude to grieve for their loss.

They are extremely grateful for all of the thoughts and prayers that have been offered for them in this time of crisis from around the entire world. They have felt your love for them and the prayers said on their behalf.

While there are no words which can help to cure the hurt that they are suffering, the thought that so many have opened their hearts to them provides them comfort. Offers of donations have been made to the family and they are truly grateful to those people who have done so.

A fund has been set up for monetary donations to help the family and checks can be mailed to Ortega Family Fund, C/O Law Offices of Scott J. Nord, 500 N. Brand Blvd., Suite 550, Glendale, California 91203.

While donations of other kinds have been made, and they are truly appreciated, they are not in the position to accept them at this time. Please make any nonmonetary donation to the charity of your choice in the name of the family. It is their desire that in this tragedy some others may receive some benefit from all the generosity being offered to them.

                                                                                The happy home lays in ruins. Folks with Mapquest printouts parade by only to reach the end of the Cul-de-sac and have to navigate a tight turn.

Family friends and relatives of the victims come by the pay their respects.

A simple note sums up how many must feel:

"I hope that your family will heal and get past this tragedy.

Your family is in our thoughts and prayers.

May God be with you always.

May 2009 be filled with happiness.

--Your neighbor.

 

Nearly a week since the Christmas Eve Massacre, a Covina neighborhood is struggling to return to normal. Reports of media, looky-loos even a random politician or two have filtered into the newsroom.

I'll be heading out there about 11:30 a.m. to take a look myself.

How long is it appropriate for this sort of thing to go on?

We're wondering that here today. If you have any thoughts, please feel free to share them.

Here's some of the most recent stories recanting the tale of Bruce and Sylvia Pardo and the Christmas Eve Massacre:

KTLA: Authorities using dental records to identify victims.

Houston Chronicle: Thirteen children orphaned (from the LA Times).

Brian Day in the SGV Tribune: Details continue to emerge.