Results tagged “murder” from News 24/7

Three men were arrested in connection with the December homicide of a woman living in an Ontario hotel.

Ontario S.W.A.T. teams and officers from the Pomona Police department served three search warrants in Pomona on March 12. They arrested 21-year-old parolee Donald Ray Walker in the 2400 block of Valhalla Street in Pomona  and 27-year-old parolee Matthews James McClane at the Lemon Tree motel at 1700 Gillette Road in Pomona,  according to an Ontario police news release.

Larry Darnell Shyne, 29, was arrested two days later during an unrelated traffic stop in San Bernardino.

All three were booked into West Valley Detention Center in Rancho Cucamonga.

Walker and McClane were arrested on suspicion of murder and parole hold. They are being held in lieu of $1.5 million bail.

Shyne was arrested on suspicion to commit murder and murder. He is being held in lieu of $501,000 bail.

Ontario Police officers went to the Hotel Indigo at 3333 East Shelby Street on Dec. 20 after employees reported finding a woman who was not breathing, according to the news release.

They discovered 41-year-old Kimberly Michelle Sum with a gunshot wound to her upper body. Sum, a mother of two, was pronounced dead at the scene.

She had been staying at the hotel for about three months prior to the shooting, police said.

Anyone with information about the homicide can call Ontario Police Detective Jeff Wentz at (909) 395-2715.

- lori.consalvo@inlandnewspapers.com

A San Bernardino man who was suspected of killing two men in 2004 took a plea bargain today as lawyers were set to begin jury selection for his upcoming criminal trial, according to prosecutors.

Jamar Lynn Franklin pleaded guilty to one count of second-degree murder and a special allegation for the use of a handgun, court officials said. He faces 25 years to life in state prison when he is sentenced.

The defendant agreed to the plea bargain today in San Bernardino Superior Court, confirmed Deputy District Attorney Steve Sanchez. A second murder count, which had been charged to Franklin, will be dismissed under the terms of the agreement.

A jury found Orienthal Liggins guilty in the deadly stabbing of 24-year-old Erica Munoz in front of her San Bernardino home in 2004.

The jury returned the verdict Wednesday in San Bernardino Superior Court, according to court records. The courts were closed Thursday and Friday for the Christmas holidays.

Liggins, 34, who represented himself during the trial, was found guilty of murder and a special allegation for the use of a knife, court records indicate. He is scheduled to return to court Feb. 13 for a court trial on his prior offenses.

Authorities found the body of Munoz, which had been stabbed numerous times, with a large kitchen knife through her chest in the front yard of a home in the 700 block of West 10th Street on Dec. 23, 2004.

Two men will be formally arraigned Jan. 6 after being ordered held on murder charges in a double homicide outside a crowded Fontana house party in October 2007.

After hearing testimony and reviewing evidence, Judge Ingrid A. Uhler ordered Francisco Javier Rodriguez and Francisco Gonzalez Jr. held to answer on the charges at a Dec. 23 hearing in Fontana Superior Court, according to court records.

Victims Aaron Angulo, 21, of Rialto, and Anthony Lopez, 21, of West Covina, were found shot in the 16400 block of El Revino Drive, in the Sierra Lakes area of Fontana. Angulo died at a local hospital, and Lopez died as friends drove him there.

 

Rodriguez, 21, and Gonzalez, 20, each face two counts of murder, according to court records.

Lawyers in the trial of an El Monte man charged with the 2004 death of a motorist he crashed into while fleeing police are expected to give closing arguments this afternoon in San Bernardino Superior Court.

The defense rested its case this morning before Judge Colin Bilash, without defendant Graciano Lopez taking the witness stand to testify in his own defense. Prosecutors rested their case last week, and only one rebuttal witness was called this morning.

Lopez faces murder charges in the death of 22-year-old Christopher Surjadjaja, of Redlands, stemming from the collision on Nov. 10, 2004. Lopez was a parolee at the time.

A Riverside man facing charges in the execution-style shooting of an aspiring rapper was ordered held over for trial at a hearing Thursday in Barstow, prosecutors confirmed.

Judge Miriam I. Morton ruled there was sufficient evidence to hold over for trial Dudzai "Prosper" Pswatai in the death of 24-year-old Robert Raymond Mastrangelo, of San Bernardino, during a preliminary hearing in Barstow Superior Court.

The hearing was the second one Pswatai has received in the case. Prosecutors dismissed and then quickly refiled charges against him on Nov. 25, causing the case to start over, because more time was needed for investigation.

A man charged in the shovel beating and deadly shooting of 22-year-old Jerry Ramirez in 2005 was sentenced today as friends and family of the victim, some of whom wore dark-colored memorial t-shirts, looked on.

Judge Brian McCarville sentenced Edward Vincent "Vinny" Hernandez to 50 years to life in state prison during proceedings in San Bernardino Superior Court.

A jury found Hernandez guilty of first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit murder and found true a special allegation for the use of a gun in the death of Ramirez, whose badly beaten body was found dumped in Waterman Canyon with seven close-range gunshot wounds to the head in November 2005.

A Fontana man was sentenced to 109 years to life in state prison Wednesday after a jury found him guilty in a shooting two years ago that left a 19-year-old woman dead.

A jury found Sergio Moreno, 22, guilty of first-degree murder in the death of Heather Marie Montoya who was traveling with two friends in a vehicle on Citrus Avenue, in Fontana, when gunshots were fired at the car in August 2006.

Moreno was also found guilty two counts of premeditated attempted murder, shooting at an occupied vehicle and gun charges, Deputy District Attorney Simon Umscheid said. The trial was held in Fontana Superior Court.

The sentencing hearing for a man convicted in the deadly San Bernardino shooting of 20-year-old Eddie Griffin was postponed to Thursday, according to prosecutors.

Patrick Shaun Macon was set to be sentenced Tuesday in San Bernardino Superior Court, but Macon's lawyer, James Gass, was unavailable because he was in trial.

At a hearing in October, Gass told a judge that he wanted to respond in writing to a county Probation Department pre-sentencing report which recommended the maximum sentence for Macon. His client has no criminal record, Gass said.

A 21-year-old man was found guilty Tuesday in the 2006 shooting death of a security guard during an altercation at a popular Victorville nightclub.

A jury found Charles Edward Bell guilty of second-degree murder and found true a special allegation for the use of a firearm in the shooting of Maurice Montez McCullough on June 4, 2006 at Club Oasis, in the 15000 block of Ramona Avenue, according to Deputy District Attorney Robert Brown.

Trial proceedings were held before Judge Erik M. Nakata in Victorville Superior Court. Jurors deliberated a little more than a day, in total, to reach the verdict, Brown said.

 

After less than a day, a jury has found Christopher Turelle White guilty on all charges in the March 2005 robbery and deadly shooting of Cee Vee Liquor store owner Steven Hall and clerk Brian Gregorio in Highland.

Lawyers are still awaiting verdicts for a second defendant, 22-year-old Darwin Lamont Richardson, who has a separate jury.

Closing arguments in the case were given by the lawyers Monday, however White's jury reached verdicts later that day. Court officials waited until this morning to announce the verdicts in San Bernardino Superior Court.

Lawyers in the trial for two men suspected in the robbery and deadly shooting of a Highland store owner and his clerk rested their cases this week. Proceedings resume Monday, as jurors await closing arguments.

Deputy District Attorney Dan Detienne rested his case against Christopher Turelle White and Darwin Lamont Richardson on Monday morning in San Bernardino Superior Court, according to court records. The men face charges in the deaths of Steve Hall, 54, and 25-year-old Brian Gregorio at Cee Vee Liquor and Couch Potato Video, in Highland, in March 2005.

Defense lawyers Richard Crouter, who represents White, and Gary Ablard, who represents Richardson, rested their cases shortly after prosecutors did, without presenting any affirmative defense, court records indicate.

The criminal trial for a Riverside man, who was charged with the execution-style shooting death of an aspiring rapper, has been delayed by prosecutors so they continue an ongoing investigation in the case.

Officially, prosecutors dimissed charges - and then re-filed them - against Dudzai Prosper Pswatai in the death of 24-year-old Robert Raymond Mastrangelo, of San Bernardino, in Barstow Superior Court, Deputy District Attorney Shannon Faherty confirmed by telephone Wednesday.

 

The dimissal and refiling of charges starts the case over, Faherty explained. Pswatai is set to return to court Dec. 2. A preliminary hearing was scheduled for Dec. 4, she said.

A man suspected in a double homicide inside an SUV in an unincorporated area of the city was ordered held to answer charges Tuesday in San Bernardino Superior Court.

Judge Arthur Harrison ruled there was sufficient evidence to hold over Javier Joaquin Luque for trial in the shooting deaths of Ronald Jaramillo and Elizabeth Amaya in a Chevrolet SUV, as it traveled on First Avenue near 40th Street, in September 2006.

Jaramillo, 35, was driving, and Amaya, 30, was in the front passenger seat when the gunfire erupted, according to the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department.

The lawyer for a San Manuel tribal member, who was recently sentenced in a murder conspiracy case, downplayed Tuesday his client's new alleged violations of her probation as "small, technical issues."

Stacy Barajas-Nunez was arrested Friday by Sheriff's deputies on suspicion of trespassing on casino property. On Tuesday, she appeared in San Bernardino Superior Court for allegedly violating her probation.

San Manuel security contacted deputies after Barajas-Nunez was seen blocking a tribal road to pick up a friend, was in a parking lot and at a guard station to fill out a complaint about an employee.

A man recently convicted of murder in the 2006 deadly shooting of Robert Joseph Carreon is scheduled for a court trial on his prior offenses in December before being sentenced.

A jury found 32-year-old Rahsaan Hanif Greene guilty on Monday of one count of murder and one count of robbery in Carreon's death inside his Verdemont-area home during a trial in San Bernardino Superior Court.

Greene's court trial, without a jury, is scheduled for Dec. 12.

A jury found Kevin Harville guilty Friday in connection with a crash while chasing an ex-girlfriend on a local freeway, killing another motorist with his vehicle's battery in October 2006.

Harville's Ford Explorer rolled over several times on the southbound 215 Freeway, pitching its battery into opposing traffic where it struck and killed motorist 30-year-old Shawn Billings Kettlewell.

After one day's deliberation, the jury found Harville guilty of second-degree murder, attempted murder and assault with a deadly weapon, according to Superior Court personnel.

After two days of pretrial motions, lawyers will return to court next month to further prepare for a murder trial stemming from a 2004 deadly crash on the 10 Freeway.

If motions are completed Dec. 1, then lawyers could begin jury selection the next day in a trial for Graciano Lopez in the death of 22-year-old Christopher Surjadjaja, prosecutors said.

The case was before Judge Colin Bilash for motions Wednesday and Thursday in San Bernardino Superior Court.

Jurors will continue deliberations Friday in the case of a Fontana woman charged with the deadly shooting of her former boyfriend at his Rialto home in 2006, court officials confirmed.

The jury received the case of Jennifer Kay Stull on Tuesday afternoon, after lawyers wrapped up their closing arguments in Fontana Superior Court.

 

Stull, 25, is suspected of fatally shooting 38-year-old Michael Anthony Ribaudo, whose body was found in the Driftwood Avenue home he shared with his mother about 11:30 p.m. on June 24, 2006, according to Rialto Police.

A suspect in the deadly shooting of a 41-year-old man at a Hesperia apartment complex in 2006 was ordered held over for trial at a hearing Wednesday.

After hearing testimony from two Sheriff's sergeants, Judge John M. Tomberlin determined there was sufficient evidence to hold over defendant Omar Rafael Hunter to face charges at trial in Victorville Superior Court, according to court records.

He is scheduled to be formally arraigned Dec. 2, records indicate.