Tracy Manzer: April 2009 Archives
It was last Friday that the Long Beach Police Department announced it was seeking a local gang member, believed armed and dangerous, in connection with the slaying of a USC grad at Orizaba Park on April 4.By early Saturday, police had found their suspect -- Tyree Joyner, 24, of Long Beach -- in the parking lot of a North Long Beach bar after patrol officers responded to calls of a shooting at the location, police said.
As of Wednesday, however, Joyner had yet to be charged in the murder of 27-year-old Garrett Norris, a former Texas resident who moved to Long Beach after securing a job at Mercedes-Benz of Long Beach.
Norris, according to witnesses, was gunned down at Orizaba Park when he tried to stop two suspects from stealing his belongings,which included his iPod. The Engineering grad moved to the city last fall, friends said.
Prosecutors announced the arrest of the first suspect, a 15-year-old alleged gang member, last week.
The teen, who has not been identified because he is a minor, could face a charge of murder in adult court if he is found unfit to remain in the juvenile court system, said Deputy District Attorney John Lonergan, who is assigned to DA's Hardcore Gang Unit.
The murder charge was filed against the 15-year-old on April 21.
The following day, the accused "denied" the juvenile court petition - the equivalent of a not guilty plea in adult court, and he is due back in Long Beach Superior Court on May 13 for a fitness hearing, which is used to determine whether a suspect should remain in juvenile court or be sent to adult court.
Also on April 21, police arrested another alleged Long Beach gang member in connection with Norris's slaying, this one 18 years old. That man was released after 48-hours when authorities failed to bring charges.
Then, last weekend, police announced the warrant issued for Joyner followed by his capture.
He has not been charged, but is being held on a parole violation, authorities explained Wednesday.
Joyner was found in a car believed to be involved in the shooting at the bar parking lot, near South Street and Paramount Boulevard. A weapon was found at that time as well, a violation of Joyner's parole, authorities said.
That violation allows authorities to hold Joyner at the Men's Central Jail without a deadline for an arraignment -- which would normally be within 48-hours -- and gives them more time to continue working on the case, police and prosecutors said Wednesday.
Joyner is also being held without bail, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department's Inmate Information Center.
His arraignment date has yet to be set.
The memorial service will begin with the honor guard calling all uniformed personnel into formation as the color guard receives the command to "order arms." During the ceremony, an invocation will be delivered, family members and dignitaries will be recognized and tributes from both agencies will be presented.
The "Last Alarm" ceremony will then commence as the bagpiper plays Amazing Grace and the "Shot Gun" salute will coincide as Taps is sounded by a bugler.
The ceremony is scheduled to begin at 9 a.m. at the Police and Fire Memorial, which is located at the foot of Chestnut Avenue, just south of Broadway and located between City Hall and the police department's headquarters.
LONG BEACH - One of three Marines charged in the 2007 shooting death of a 22-year-old Long Beach man pleaded guilty Wednesday morning to all the charges against him.
During Wednesday's session, Cpl. Ramon Hernandez, 23, entered a guilty plea to three counts - first-degree murder, attempted robbery and burglary.
The three defendants - Hernandez and Privates First Class Trevor Glenn Landers, 20, and Anthony Red Vigeant, 21 - appeared at the Long Beach Superior Court Wednesday for a tentative trial date.
All three were charged with killing David Jack Pettigrew during a robbery at Pettigrew's Long Beach apartment on Sept. 9, 2007.
During a 2008 preliminary hearing, a Long Beach police detective testified that Hernandez, the shooter, had performed two tours of duty in Iraq and received the Purple Heart after a bomb detonated near him, leaving him with head and facial injuries.
Hernandez will return to the Long Beach courthouse on May 4 for sentencing, when he faces the possibility of life in prison without parole.
Landers and Vigeant are still going to trial, but appear to have severed their cases and will be appearing on different dates.
If convicted on all counts, both Landers and Vigeant also face a maximum of life behind bars without the possiblity of parole.Landers is scheduled to return to court on April 30 and Vigeant will return on May 12.
tracy.manzer@presstelegram.com, 562-499-1261.
Martinez Jr., a 27-year-old Long Beach man, has been convicted of stabbing two women, both former girlfriends, to death.
He was first convicted in 2005 of killing Christina Wilkerson, 28, of Long Beach on March 18, 2003. Wilkerson was stabbed 20 times in the face, neck and body, then shot at point-blank range with a .22 rifle. For that crime, Martinez was sentenced to more than 50 years to life in prison.
The accused was convicted last November for the slaying of Myra Orozco, 24, of Long Beach. Orozco refused to help the defendant dispose of Wilkerson's remains and was stabbed and slashed close to 30 times in the face, neck and body before she was pushed out of the car she was sitting in and run over on March 30, 2003.
The same jury that found Martinez Jr. guilty of Orozco's death, as well as the special circumstance he had previously been convicted of murder and therefore eligible for the death penalty, deadlocked in December on whether Martinez Jr. should spend the rest of his life in prison without the possibility of parole or put to death.
Jurors in the case who spoke to the Press-Telegram after the sentencing phase of the last trial said it was a vote of 11-1 in favor of death, and they attributed the deadlock to one juror who was described as having "a God complex."
Complicating the scheduling for the new penalty phase of the trial was the issue of the prosecutor, then Deputy District Patrick Connolly, poised to start his new job as a Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge in December.
After attorneys on both sides met briefly Tuesday morning, a status update hearing was scheduled for May 28 in Department 10 of the Long Beach Superior Court, with jury selection for the new penalty phase of the trial slated for late June, court staff said.
Martinez Jr., meanwhile, is being held without bail in the Men's Central Jail in Downtown Los Angeles.
A number of officers said letters from Attorney Herbert Hafif, who filed the "Donning and Doffing" lawsuit on behalf of the officers, were sent to officers named in the suit starting in early April. In the letters were proposals or claims of settlement or reward amounts in the tens of thousands of dollars per individual. Speculation by members of the department calculate some of the proposed sums could be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars for some officers with more years on the job and more rank.
City Attorney Robert Shannon said last week he had not seen any of the letters although he had heard about them.
Shannon also confirmed the city and the attorney for the plaintiffs are scheduled to meet in May with a court-appointed mediator. Such meetings are common in any lawsuit of this size and the city has no intention of settling next month, particularly not for the amounts being talked about, Shannon said.
"I have heard the amounts they're claiming ... and we would never agree to that," Shannon said.
Hafif could not be reached for comment.
A few police officers said they were particularly concerned with the timing of the mediation. When the suit was filed, they noted, the city's deficit was not as critical.
The timing of the mediation is also not lost on the city, Shannon said, although he added that the city would not settle on the matter even if the economy were not in question.
In a nutshell, "Donning and Doffing" refers to the time officers spend before shift suiting up and then, at the end of their shift, dressing down. Many officers arrive to work early to don protective gear and uniforms. Attorneys who have filed "Donning and Doffing" suits argue the clock starts the moment the officer begins to dress and that the issue is covered by the federal statute known as the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).
Lawsuits seeking compensation for "Donning and Doffing" began gaining in popularity last year and police officers in other parts of the state and nation who have already filed such suits have seen mixed results.
