Court cases postponed

Krall, who has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, is accused of fatally stabbing Yolanda Meraz, 37, and injuring Meraz's sister, daughter and mother during a 3 a.m. June 16, 2006, knife attack in the victims' Lakewood home.

The Meraz family said they had never met Krall, who moved into her boyfriend's house a few doors down from the Meraz residence only weeks before the attack.

Krall's new trial date is June 10 in Dept. J at the Norwalk Superior Court.

In other court matters, a pre-trial hearing for Eric Benites, one of two youths charged as adults in the murder of a Cabrillo High School student, 16-year-old Florentino Rivera, and the attempted murder of  five other people.

Benites, who was 15 at the time of the  2008 attack, is charged along with an alleged fellow gang member, Jason Trejo, who was 14 at the time of the slaying.

The killing occurred when Benites and Trejo allegedly opened fire on a group of people near 15th Street and Cedar Avenue on Jan. 6, 2008, according to police and prosecutors.

Sources close to the defendants and the victims said the shooting stemmed from Benites'  thirst for revenge in the killing of his 13-year-old brother, Jose Cano, who was stabbed to death in June 2007 by gang rivals at 14th Street Park.

Cano was killed after he allegedly attacked a 14-year-old gang rival's home and the 14-year-old's mother, Eva Daley, on June 25, 2007.

Cano also stabbed the 14-year-old, Mauricio Rivera, in a fight about six months prior to Cano's murder.

Rivera and his mother, Eva Daley, along with five other members of Rivera's gang were convicted last year of Cano's murder.

Benites' next pre-trial hearing is scheduled for June 11 in Dept. C of the Long Beach Superior Court. Both he and Trejo are still awaiting trial.

A secon pre-trial hearing, scheduled for Andrew Felton Odom, was postponed until xJune 10 in Dept. C at the Long Beach courthouse.

Odom is accused of killing 70-year-old Rita Wiley, a cancer patient who was found beaten and stabbed to death in the backyard of her home in the 1000 block of East 15th Street on April 21, 2008.

According to police, Odom confessed to the killing a day after his arrest, telling detectives he felt bad and that he wasn't in the right fram of mind of the time. Odom is charged with murder and a special circumstance allegation that the slaying was carried out as part of a robbery. The special circumstance charge could make the 41-year-old defendant's case eligible for the death penalty.