Female gang member charged with killing young LAX worker
LOS ANGELES -- A murder charge was filed today against an alleged female gang member in connection with the killing of a Los Angeles International Airport employee, shot to death at an intersection in South Los Angeles.
Authorities said the victim was on her way home from work and the shooting appeared to be unprovoked.
Assistant Head Deputy Peter Cagney of Hardcore Gang Division said Jessica Ortega, 30 (dob 09/28/77), is charged in case No. BA339084 with one count of murder. The count carries two special allegations that the principal intentionally discharged a firearm causing death and that the offense was committed for the benefit of, at the direction of, and in association with a criminal street gang.
Ortega is due to be arraigned this afternoon at Los Angeles Superior Court, Department 30. Prosecutors allege
that Ortega, whose moniker is "Gorda," is a member of the Playboys Gang. On April 10, just after midnight, victim Samantha Padilla, right, was on her way home from work when she exitedthe northbound 110 freeway at Slauson Avenue. While stopped at a traffic signal, Padilla was shot and killed in her car.
Bail for Ortega was recommended at $2 million. If convicted as charged, Ortega faces a maximum state prison sentence of 50 years to life.
(Photo from KTLA.com)
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Larry Altman has covered crime in the South Bay since 1990. He's seen it all - the missing model who turned up dead in the desert, the wives found dead in trunks, the high-school coaches who get a little too close to their players. He drives his young colleagues nuts with his "I remember when" stories. He welcomes your tips and observations about the present, and you can mix in a little Lakers basketball talk if you like.
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Denise Nix knew as young as grade school, when she spent every summer working on the camp newspaper, that she wanted to be a journalist. Denise has spent most of the last 12 years of her career in the courtroom. She joined the Daily Breeze in 2001, where she tracks and reports on hundreds of cases at every level of the justice system. And she's never, ever, seen a judge use a gavel.
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Here's another story of a dirtbag gangmember shooting at a hard working person for no other reason except to further the gang. Too bad the victim didn't have the opportunity to defend herself like the El Segundo officers did.
This should be a death penalty case.
A bill such as the one proposed in Connecticut "allows you to control the people who are willing to be controlled" but is unlikely to make much of a difference otherwise, Pete Lindstrom, an analyst at Midvale, Utah- based Burton Group, told Vijayan." The notion of the predator is getting lost here. Are we trying to validate the kids who are underage trying to act overage, or the overage adults trying to act like they are underage?"