Crime & Courts

Kazuyoshi Miura landed at LAX before dawn Friday to face conspiracy to murder charges. Less than a day later, he was found dead in his cell. The Los Angeles Times has the report.

A suspected drunken driver crashed into a tree and house in Redondo Beach, police said today.

Melanie Hope Pierce-Uranga, 32, of Torrance lost control of her 2008 silver Honda as she drove south in the 400 block of South Lucia Avenue at 10:30 p.m. Thursday, Redondo Beach police Sgt. Phil Keenan said.

The car struck a tree and the exterior wall of a house. No one inside was hurt.

Pierce-Uranga was treated for minor injuries at a hospital and released. She was given a citation for allegedly drunken driving, given a court date and released.

The latest legal battle in a lawsuit over a Rancho Palos Verdes crash between actor Keanu Reeves and a celebrity photographer is over the word "paparazzi." Here's the latest from City News Service:

By BILL HETHERMAN

City News Service

LOS ANGELES (CNS)- A lawyer for Keanu Reeves is urging a judge to reject a

motion by a celebrity news photographer suing the actor for negligence aimed at

preventing the defense from using the words "paparazzo" and "paparazzi" at trial

 

Alison Silva says his earning ability and job prospects have been diminished because

of injuries suffered March 19, 2007, according to the lawsuit filed Nov. 5 of that

year in Los Angeles Superior Court.

 

Video shows Reeves stopped in a black 1996 Porsche 911 Cabrio and trying to pull away

from a photographer on Avenida Tranquila in Rancho Palos Verdes.

 

My Friday morning began with a question from a reader on yesterday's search of an armed robbery suspect in Lomita:

"You call this News? No description. Not sure if anything was stolen. Glad to see that you knew he was an adult.
Why not wait till you get some facts before you waste my bandwidth with something like this?"

I guess I'll tackle these questions one at a time. Yes, I call this news. We had several inquiries from the community about the helicopters circling overhead and concerns about a "wierd" thing in "such a small town and it is happening even here these days," as one resident wrote in an e-mail to me.

As for what I knew (or what I didn't know), what you need to understand is that reporters are only the messengers. We don't make the news, nor are we involved in how it plays out. If you have a problem with how much information was (or was not) released, then that is an issue to take up with the Lomita Sheriff's Department. We fight this fight daily, and you're welcome to lead a battle.

I had all the facts that were available. Believe me, I wish that in every breaking news situation, we had all the information RIGHT NOW accurately and completely. Unfortunately, the real world doesn't work like that, but we're working hard to keep our readers as up-to-date on their community as possible. I apologize if that seems like a waste of anything to anybody.

Thank you to this reader for his questions, they are absolutely understandable and legitimate. And thank you for not writing in all capital letters or calling me names in the process. I know it's tempting, but it's nice when we can all get along.

 

 

 

An armed robber in Lomita eluded capture today, despite a large manhunt.

The suspect, described only as an adult male, confronted a pedestrian with a gun about 1:20 p.m. in the 25600 block of Oak Street, according to sheriff's Lt. Doreen Alcaraz.

Helicopters and deputies searched the area for several hours, but called off the search without finding anyone, Alcaraz said. It is not known what, if anything, was stolen from the victim.

Looking back at the hundreds of murder cases I've covered during my career, I would guesstimate that a good one-third of them involved men killing their spouses/girlfriends/baby mamas. During lunch with some former colleagues yesterday, we began talking about the murder earlier that day in Carson of Veronica Reyes, purportedly by her estranged husband, Carlos Reyes (left), who remains at large. We concluded that, yes, more often than not, it is the husband.

It brought to mind a preliminary hearing I watched that morning while waiting for another case to be called at the Long Beach Courthouse. The basic story was that a San Pedro couple of seven years, who have two young children together, were on the outs. She woke up one night in May to a tapping on her head and a shotgun in her face. Her 29-year-old boyfriend pointed the gun away quickly, she said, and they argued. A week before, he hit her and, she said, accidentally hit their 3-year-old, as they slept. In a different incident, he pulled up next to her in his car as she was trying to leave with their children and put a gun in his mouth.

The woman tearfully testified she was not afraid of him - only that she was afraid he would hurt himself, which is why she went to the police. She said the police told her he will hurt her, but she didn't believe them. Judge J.D. Lord did not find there was enough evidence to hold the boyfriend for trial on an assault with a deadly weapon charge, but acknowledged that he - like the police and prosecutor - recognized the domestic violence pattern that was emerging in their relationship.

"I'm not minimizing," Lord said about the case. "I recognize there is significant danger to the victim that just testified ... But I can't hold him to answer because I'm predicting the future, and it could be grim."

The prosecutor was going to file a different charge against the boyfriend, but sheriff's records indicate he was released from custody Wednesday evening.

Is it like donuts? You know, you get 12 sentencing dates and the 13th is free? Ruben Vargas' senencing, scheduled for yesterday, was postponed to Oct. 14 for sentencing. Again.

The countdown (countup?) is being chronicled here.

 

This is 22-year-old convicted killer Benjamin Gonzalez, who came into a Long Beach courtroom yesterday with his fingers all ablaze with a message for the media. It's hard to see in the picture, but his eyebrows are replaced with tattoos that say "Long" and "Beach."

Our colleague, Tracy Manzer at the Long Beach Press-Telegram, has the full story on the sentencing hearing for Gonzalez and three others. Her report is accompanied by video and multiple photographs. The whole package can be found by clicking here.

It was difficult to watch. Just before Dwight Mitchell Waters' preliminary hearing was to begin yesterday in Long Beach, he had to decide if he wanted to spend six years in prison and be called a rapist for the rest of his life or fight on against the charges and risk being sent to the pokey for about 24 years if he is convicted at trial. It was a Catch-22 of epic proportions because Waters, 39, didn't believe he had committed a crime by having what he thought was consensual sex with a 13-year-old girl who he gave boxing lessons to.

The problem was, the girl was set to testify that the sex they had was not consensual. But even if a jury down the road were to believe him instead of her, he still has problems because he could be convicted of lewd acts on a child.

His defense attorney met with his family, and then he was allowed to talk with them privately in court. When Judge Arthur Jean took the bench, he wanted an answer. The hour was getting late and the law said Waters needed to have his prelim that day ... as did another accused rapist that the court needed to get to. Waters, a handsome man with almost model features, sat quietly with his hands cuffed when pressed to make a decision. This went on for the better part of a half hour.

"Everything in life is a compromise and this is the label the prosecutor insists on," Jean told Waters. "If you want to fight the label, feel free.... The question is, what do you gain or accomplish?"

You can see the full story here.