Cori Desmond's alleged killer makes first court appearance
Tony Lopez Perez pleaded not guilty to a single murder charge this morning during his first court appearance for the slaying of a popular Torrance woman eight months ago.
Perez, 35, of Redondo Beach, appeared for the brief San Bernardino Superior Court hearing via a live television connection from the Central Detention Center in San Bernardino, according to Susan Mickey, a spokeswoman for the District Attorney's office.
Perez will return to court Oct. 22, Mickey said. He remains jailed without bail.
Perez was arrested Thursday night for the death of Cori Desmond, 28.
Desmond was last seen alive on Feb. 15 by friends at the Bac Street Lounge in Redondo Beach, where she had gone after finishing her bartending job at Beaches in Manhattan Beach.
Her body was found the next day in a bag in the snow along a Running Springs Highway.
Anonymous tips led San Bernardino County Sheriff homicide detectives to Perez, who was seen scrubbing the inside of his truck shortly after Desmond's death.
He sold it to a dealership and detectives later tracked it down and found unspecified evidence
inside that they believe proves Lopez killed Desmond.
No details have emerged about the crime, although detectives said they believe the motive was sexual.
A public defender was appointed to represent Lopez, a single father of two who worked as a restaurant manager.
However, no one from the San Bernardino Public Defender's office was available to comment.
Read the complaint here: perez.doc
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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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FRY THIS SCUMBAG!!!
hope there is hard evidence that he commited this horrible crime. if so, hang him high. i dont want my tax money spent to keep him alive in jail.
you people are so harsh about someone you dont know....you people have no lives and just sit here sayin hang him high or fry the scumbag....both families are destroyed from this situation so until the courts prove he did it...innocent until proven guilty....we all pay tax dollars for those who have done such worse crimes then ones who have done so much worse while they are still in jail themselves
WTF ??? Both families are destroyed??? With the overwhelming evidence against this scumbag, I think we should turn him over to Desmonds family and let them decide what to do ... what crime is worse than a senseless, sexual, murder ... and he is probably an illegal alien !!!
It's funny...the liberals are first to jump up to defense something like this UNLESS it happens to them...then they are first in line crying for justice !!!
he is not an illegal alien!!! he was born in los angeles, ca aug> 1974!!!