Results tagged “superior court” from News 24/7

Two Fontana women await sentencing in a Los Angeles federal court in connection with an Inland area mortgage fraud scheme that generated more than $1 million in fraudulent proceeds.

Lisa Lievanos, 45, was convicted today on federal charges. She reportedly acted as a straw borrower who posed as the purchaser of one of the properties in the scheme, according to a Federal Bureau of Investigation statement.

Lievanos was convicted of five federal counts: conspiracy, two counts of wire fraud, money laundering and making false statements to FBI agents. She faces up to 60 years in federal prison when she is sentenced July 13 before U.S. District Judge Florence Marie Cooper.

Two Los Angeles-area businessmen who are suspected of trying to bribe a county official with $15,000 for help with a Bloomington project are set for a Superior Court hearing Wednesday.

Prosecutors and lawyers for Arshak and Vartan Kouladjian announced in court proceedings Monday that they were ready for a preliminary hearing where evidence against the brothers will be presented in San Bernardino Superior Court.

The Kouladjians are suspected of attempting to bribe Bob Page, the chief of staff for Fifth District Supervisor Josie Gonzales, with an envelope of cash at a Jan. 3, 2008 meeting where details of the project were to be discussed. Charges were filed against the pair a month later.

Defense lawyers have said there is a lack of evidence to support charges against the Kouladjians.

A teenager took a plea bargain Friday in the deadly shooting of Leonard James Scott on 18th Street nearly a year ago.

Timothy John Vargas Jr. pleaded guilty to one count of voluntary manslaughter and a special allegation for personally using a firearm, during proceedings in San Bernardino Superior Court.

Vargas, 17, faces a sentence of six years in state prison when he is sentenced May 18, according to Deputy District Attorney Jay Robinson.

After lawyers' negotiations once again failed to reach a resolution in the "on ice" case, the court set a date next month for a defense motion challenging the charges.

If the motion set for May 29 is denied, then lawyers will set a date for a jury trial for Carl Edward Alexander and Maurice Lynell Lockett, Deputy District Attorney Jay Hoffman told the court during proceedings today in San Bernardino Superior Court.

Defense lawyers have alleged one of the defendants was held by a San Bernardino police sergeant without legal cause during a July 2 traffic stop while a search warrant for a drug raid was obtained.

A new domestic violence study has found which batterers are least likely to be re-arrested, according to state courts researchers.

Offenders who are more educated, are fully employed, have short criminal histories, and show no clear signs of drug or alcohol dependence are more likely to complete batterer intervention programs and less likely to be re-arrested, the researchers found.

The federally funded study, which was conducted by the San Francisco-based Administrative Office of the Courts' Office of Court Research, examined data on nearly 1,500 offenders enrolled in 53 different programs in five counties, including Riverside County.

A San Diego man, who was suspected of molesting a teenager he met at Redlands Mall, is scheduled to be sentenced next month after he accepted a plea bargain in Superior Court.

Scott Douglas Oakley, 29, pleaded no contest to one count of oral copulation with a minor under 16 years old during court proceedings Friday in San Bernardino Superior Court, according to court records.

Oakley is scheduled to be sentenced May 8. He told authorities he had been seeking out transient men across the state for sex for 11 years.

Three men charged in the fatal shooting of 26-year-old Devin Tervelle McDavis at a San Bernardino apartment complex in August were ordered held over for trial at a court hearing today.

After listening to witness testimony, a judge determined sufficient evidence existed to hold Donte Mack, his twin brother Dorian Mack and Chrystopher Young on murder charges during proceedings in San Bernardino Superior Court, according to prosecutors.

The three men are scheduled to be formally arraigned on the charges Apr. 28.

Two members of a Los Angeles-area street gang were found guilty today in a home invasion robbery at a Highland apartment complex.

A jury found Singa Rudolph Jones and Corvell Taris Staples, both 19, guilty of one count each of home invasion robbery and special allegations that a firearm was used and that the crime benefitted a street gang, according to prosecutors.

The verdicts were announced today in San Bernardino Superior Court, confirmed Deputy District Attorney Dan Detienne. The men face a maximum of 29 years in state prison when they are sentenced May 28, Detienne said.

Three men charged in a deadly gang shooting, which may have been sparked by a rebuffed request for marijuana, are set for a court hearing Wednesday.

Donte Lazon Mack, his twin brother, Dorian Lavonn Mack and Chrystopher Lamarr Young are scheduled for a preliminary hearing stemming from last summer's slaying of 26-year-old Devin Tervelle McDavis.

Lawyers in the case announced that they were ready for the hearing today in San Bernardino Superior Court, prosecutors confirmed. At the hearing, a judge will listen to testimony and determine whether sufficient evidence exists to hold over the defendants for trial on the charges.

Prosecutors charged the 21-year-old brothers and Young, 22, with murder and street gang allegations in the Aug. 11 shooting at the Foothill Villas apartments on West Second Street in San Bernardino.

Two cold case homicides were recently charged to Patrick Shaun Macon with the help of witnesses who were willing to come forward after Macon was already sent to state prison in another case, say prosecutors.

Macon, 29, was charged last week with two counts of murder in the deadly shootings of 28-year-old Aaron Hines and 21-year-old Joshua Joell Stanton in 2003 and 2006, respectively. Both homicides occurred in San Bernardino.

But while police believed from the start that Macon was the suspect in both shootings, detectives didn't get the information they needed to charge him with the deaths until after he was convicted and sent to prison, explained Deputy District Attorney Lisa Rogan.

"Macon was always a suspect in these cases," Rogan said, in a telephone conversation this afternoon. "All the evidence we had, up to this point, pointed to him. But there was nobody willing to step forward."

A court hearing for the man charged in the DUI-related death of Los Angeles Angels' pitcher Nick Adenhart is scheduled for this afternoon.

Andrew Thomas Gallo, 22, is set to be arraigned on six felony counts, which includes three counts of murder, at 1:30 p.m. in Orange County Superior Court, according to the court.

Gallo, who is associated with addresses in Riverside and San Bernardino, has a previous drunk driving conviction in San Bernardino County. At the time of the crash, Gallo was on probation for a DUI incident in Colton.

A Riverside County judge has ordered two doctors to perform a mental evaluation of the man accused of killing a 10-year-old Beaumont boy in 1997 to see if he is able to stand trial.

The defendant, 45-year-old Joseph Edward Duncan III, appeared in court today at Larson Justice Center, in Indio. court records state. He has been charged with the death of Anthony Martinez, who was playing outside his home when he was taken on April 4, 1997.

The boy's nude and battered body was found about two weeks later beneath a pile of rocks in rural Indio.

A parolee convicted of fatally stabbing his ex-girlfriend multiple times in the front yard of a San Bernardino home was sentenced Friday to 88 years to life in state prison, court officials said.

Orienthal D. Liggins, who was found guilty Dec. 23 of murdering 25-year-old Erika Munoz, was sentenced before Judge Brian McCarville in San Bernardino Superior Court.

Wearing just a T-shirt and plaid boxers, Munoz had bolted from her 10th Street home looking for help two days before Christmas in 2004.

The 25-year-old mother of two found a next-door neighbor outside about 4 a.m. and asked him to call police. Telephone lines to the woman's home had been cut.

Former Calimesa City Council member Jon Winningham was sentenced Friday to two years in state prison for violating his probation, a charge stemming from his child pornography conviction in 2007.

The 53-year-old Winningham was sentenced in Riverside Superior Court. He is required to surrender to authorities April 17 to begin his sentence.

Winningham, who served 12 years on the council, was arrested Sept. 22 on suspicion of violating the terms of his probation by using the Internet to arrange a hotel meeting with a man. Judge James T. Warren said he was particularly dismayed that Winningham had used a library computer.

A judge ruled in 2007 that Winningham could not use a computer after he pleaded guilty to 10 felony counts of intent to distribute child pornography and three misdemeanor counts of possession of child pornography.

Witness testimony has been underway in the trial for Dudzai Pswatai since March 10 in Barstow Superior Court. Closing arguments to the jury were set to begin this morning, and the case would then be presented to the jury for deliberation following final instructions from the judge, confirmed Deputy District Attorney Shannon Faherty.

Pswatai faces charges of murder, robbery, kidnapping and torture in the death of Mastrangelo, whose body was found by a jogger in June in a drainage ditch alongside the 15 Freeway near Barstow. The victim's hands and feet were bound, and he had been shot several times, according to police.

A man charged with last year's deadly shooting of 18-year-old Rey Flores will be held over for trial, a Superior Court judge has ruled.

After listening to witness testimony, a judge determined that sufficient evidence exists to hold over Matthew Austin Solari for trial in Flores' death at a hearing Wednesday in San Bernardino Superior Court, according to prosecutors.

Solari, 21, faces one count of murder and special allegations for using a handgun in the connection with Flores' death, court records state. The victim was shot in front of his apartment in the 200 block of South Lenore Street, in San Bernardino, in October.

A man from San Bernardino's westside, who was convicted in September in the deadly shooting of Edward Griffin, has been charged with two new homicides in the city.

Prosecutors charged Patrick Shaun Macon, 29, with the deaths of 28-year-old Aaron Hines in May 2003 and Joshua Joell Stanton, 21, in August 2006, according to a criminal complaint filed Tuesday in San Bernardino Superior Court.

No information was available about when Macon would be appearing in court.

After about four hours of deliberation, a jury found Shamar Lavette Thornton guilty in the slaying of a convenience store clerk during a robbery two years ago in Apple Valley, according to prosecutors.

Thornton faces life in state prison without the possibility of parole when he is sentenced May 7 in Victorville Superior Court, confirmed Deputy District Attorney Michael Fermin. Jurors reached the verdicts Thursday, he said.

The jury found Thornton, 23, guilty of first-degree murder in the shooting death of William Gould, 31, a 7-11 convenience store clerk, during a robbery at 12:54 a.m. at the store located near Highway 18 and Apple Valley Road.

A former U.S. Army employee, who is accused of strangling a female co-worker who refused to continue dating him, could learn today whether he will have a preliminary hearing Thursday.

Lawrence John Rivera, 38, is set to appear today in Barstow Superior Court. If the preliminary hearing occurs Thursday, a judge will listen to witness testimony and determine whether sufficient evidence exists to hold Rivera for trial.

The body of the victim, 26-year-old Kristina Garcia, was found dumped in the open desert near Barstow in May 2002. Rivera faces one count of murder.

A jury was unable to reach a unanmimous verdict on murder charges for two men accused of fatally shooting 22-year-old Charles Marshall in San Bernardino in 2007.

Judge Bryan F. Foster declared the jury deadlocked Monday on one count of murder each for Todd Jose Tibbs and Brandon Parks Burns during trial proceedings in San Bernardino Superior Court, according to court records.

However, jurors found Tibbs guilty of a second count of attempted murder, court records indicate.