Results tagged “Harbor Gateway” from Crime & Courts

Ernesto Murillo took a gamble when he pleaded guilty in March to the shooting a year before that left a little boy with a bullet in his head. He doesn't know what sentence he'll get, but it could be life in prison.

He was scheduled to find out today, but the sentencing hearing was postponed until June 4.

Previously:

BREAKING NEWS: One dropped from Harbor Gateway shooting case

Harbor Gateway gang shooting

Some people have called to ask what happened at Wal-mart on 190th Street in Harbor Gateway today.

Police were called there about noon and called for a voluntary evacuation.

Here's why: Someone called the store and said he had put a bomb inside. Police did a search, but found nothing.

Here's the LAPD's press release on the Harbor Gateway robbery from Sunday night.


Los Angeles: Los Angeles Police Department detectives are investigating an armed take-over robbery during which a security guard was tied up.

On Sunday, February 15, 2009 at around 8:00 p.m., Harbor Area Officers were called to a warehouse operated by a logistics company located in the 1500 block of Francisco Street in the Harbor Gateway area of Los Angeles. Officers arrived to discover the immobilized security guard and that a robbery had occurred.

A preliminary investigation revealed that several suspects forced entry onto the logistics company property by cutting through a secure rear gate. Simultaneously, suspects drove to the entrance of the property in three semi-trailer trucks. When the guard attempted to stop and detain the drivers for identification, armed men approached the guard and subdued him. The guard was then tied up and left on the ground inside the location.

Prosecutors announced today that they were "unable to proceed" to trial against Ismael Torres for the shooting that left a young boy with a bullet in his brain. We have the full story up here at dailybreeze.com.

Previous Crime & Courts blog entries on the case are here.

Charges have not been filed yet against a man who was arrested last week after allegedly following a Torrance woman home from a casino and robbing her, according to the authorities. Earnest Alexander, 41, of Hawthorne, is being held at the Men's Central Jail on a federal parole violation while several law enforcement agencies investigate him, said Torrance police Sgt. Bernard Anderson.

Federal prosecutors who had searched for Alexander for months in connection to a large-scale Lawndale-based counterfeit currency ring say they will wait to see how state officials handle the case before pursuing him the case against him in federal court. Another figure in that fake money case, Troy Stroud, was expected to be sentenced today. The sentencing, however, was postponed until Jan. 26, according to Assistant U.S. Attorney Mack Jenkins.

Alexander was arrested Wednesday after leading police on a pursuit that ended when he crashed his vehicle in the Harbor Gateway. He is suspected of following a Torrance woman home from the Normandie Casino in Gardena and robbing her early that morning.

Previously: We don't just write about crimes ... we solve them, too!

You may have read here about the man who followed a Torrance woman home this morning from a Gardena casino, robbed her, then led police on a pursuit that ended with a crash in the Harbor Gateway. When I saw that story, I thought the suspect's name sounded familiar. 

I ran Earnest Alexander's name through my spreadsheet o' criminal cases, and saw that someone of the same name, age and hometown of Hawthorne was wanted by the feds as part of that large-scale Lawndale counterfeit currency ring the Secret Service busted up last year.

I gave Assistant U.S. Attorney Mack Jenkins a call and asked if Alexander was still at large. He joked, "Yes. Did you find him?"

I replied, "Well, yes, I think I did."

Some Secret Service agents have made their way to the Torrance Police Department this afternoon to have a chat, and it seems like he's the same guy.

Guess he had good reason to run - the ringleader of the operation previously pleaded guilty to some charges and is serving a little more than nine years in a federal penitentiary. The four remaining participants have pleaded guilty and face a maximum of 20 years in prison when they return to court. One is scheduled to come back Monday and three others are scheduled for March 9. 

Previous entries on the counterfeit currency ring are here. 

If you wondered what the helicopter and all that commotion was earlier around 228th Street and Western Avenue in the Harbor Gateway, here's the answer:

Police in both Torrance and Lomita got hits on a LoJack signal from a stolen vehicle.

They tracked it to a 2008 Audi SUV near 228th and Western. When the bad guys inside saw the cops, they tried to run and crashed.

Two guys were detained right away. The driver fled into the neighborhood.

Police from LAPD and Torrance, along with Lomita sheriff's deputies, searched for him and found him a short time ago.

Detectives decided to only keep the driver. He is Kamrin Tyler Kelly, 19, of Downey. He's being booked as we write into the Torrance jail on suspicion of auto theft, hit-and-run, resisting arrest, and obstruction.
 
Scott Varley's photo shows a Torrance officer talking to some residents. That's not the bad guy.

These are the photos from the Wal-Mart robbery in Harbor Gateway. Three guys held up the store on Sunday. If you know them, call the police at 213-485-2511.

During yesterday's preliminary hearing for two Latino men suspected of shooting at a black family as they drove through Harbor Gateway looking at cars for sale, the defense attorneys hit hard on the topic of whether or not the family engaged in any gang activity. There's always been this suspicion that one or more of the passengers were gang members, who maybe flashed their own gang signs or displayed a weapon. They all denied any such notion on the witness stand.

While Ernesto Murillo, a known East Side Torrance gang member, is the believed shooter - things are a little murkier for his co-defendant, Ismael Torres. Torres, who listened to the proceedings through a Spanish-language interpreter, is not known to law enforcement. He has no tattoos and doesn't dress the part of a gang banger. His mother was in court, and she wiped away tears in the hallway as her son was led back to the lock-up in shackles.

In the long run, it really doesn't matter - legally or morally - if the family were or are gang members. Certainly, 6-year-old Laverya Elzy and his two toddler cousins don't prowl the streets late at night looking to score crack, carjack or kill. No one deserves to be shot at, and those that pull the trigger over something as lame as "they were driving slowly in my territory" need to be prosecuted and locked up like the animlas they are.

 

Prosecutors are still deciding whether they will seek the death penalty for Jonathan Fajardo and four other 204th Street gang members accused of killing friend Christopher Ash in Carson because they thought he snitched to the police about the slaying of 14-year-old Cheryl Green in the Harbor Gateway. The District Attorney's Special Circumstances Committee is also still considering whether Fajardo and another man accused of killing Cheryl will be sent to death row if convicted, too.

The five defendants in the Ash murder case were in a downtown courtroom today for a trial, but it was postponed because there is a motion a pending on whether or not to try the two cases together. Deputy District Attorney John Ramseyer told Judge Steven Van Sicklen that Fajardo is representing himself in the Cheryl murder case.

Everyone comes back to court Sept. 3 for the consolidation motion.

Fajardo and Ernesto Alcarez are charged with capital murder for killing Cheryl, who is black, as she stood with friends and family on Dec. 15, 2006. Authorities believe they shot the group in retaliation for an earlier shooting.

 

Alexandria Williams, 20, is charged with robbing - or trying to rob - four different people during three armed street hold-ups in Torrance, Carson and the Harbor Gateway. Her preliminary hearing was today, and we'll have a full report in tomorrow's Daily Breeze.

The petite Culver City woman didn't seem too ruffled, though, by the possible 47-year, four-month prison sentence she could face if convicted of all the crimes. She waved to her supporters in court, smiled and mouthed things to them - including compliments to one woman on her yellow sundress. When the woman left before the hearing ended, she made three loud kiss noises to Williams, who smirked in response.

The alleged gang member and his associate who are charged with shooting 6-year-old Lavareya Elzy in the Harbor Gateway last month were in court for arraignment today. Ernesto Murillo, 25, and Ismael Torres, 26, pleaded not guilty to nine felony counts each, including attempted murder. They will return to court April 28 to have a preliminary hearing scheduled. Lavareya, who has a bullet in his head, is reportedly doing better ... although it's still not clear what kind of damage the bullet caused.

Check out tomorrow's Daily Breeze or dailybreeze.com for the full story.

Two alleged gang members charged with shooting and critically wounding a 6-year-old boy and shooting at his family while they drove through the Harbor Gateway last month are scheduled to be arraigned later today at the Long Beach Courthouse. We'll tell you what happens, and try to get an update on Lavareya Elzy's condition. 

 

Gang counselors at the Toberman Neighborhood Center will lead a March for Peace on Saturday in the Harbor Gateway.
The march comes in the wake of the March 4 shooting of Lavareay Elzy, a 6-year-old boy riding in a car with his family when suspected gang members opened fire.

Two Latino gang members were arrested.
Lavareay, who is black, remains hospitalized.
Detectives were working to determine if the crime was racially motivated.
The march begins at 10 a.m. at Plaza Del Amo and Halldale Avenue.