Results tagged “trial” from News 24/7

Jurors in the trial for Amber Rose Riley, who prosecutors say aided in the deadly stabbing of a friend in May 2003, are expected to receive the case today for deliberation.

Lawyers began their closing arguments this morning in San Bernardino Superior Court. Riley, 22, faces charges of murder and a special allegation for using a knife.

Deputy District Attorney Karen Khim told jurors that Riley had a fascination with death and wanted to see a dead body. Riley lured her friend Terry Taylor up to Perris Hill, where she assisted co-defendant Jason Lamar Harris in stabbing Taylor to death, Khim explained.

Trial proceedings are underway for Mario "Stomper" Valderrama, who allegedly took a four-foot long shotgun to collect a $150 debt from a Redlands man, shot him dead and left in the man's Chrysler PT Cruiser in 2004.

Lawyers in the case of the 25-year-old Valderrama announced they were ready for trial and then argued pretrial motions Wednesday in San Bernardino Superior Court, according to the District Attorney's Office.

Valderrama is charged with killing Keith Parks, 46, in a empty lot near the 100 block of 10th Street in Redlands on July 17, 2004. Emergency personnel found Parks' body with a gunshot wound to the chest, and he died at a local hospital.

Proceedings are expected to resume today with more motions, according to Deputy District Attorney Douglas Poston. It was unknown when lawyers' opening remarks and witness testimony might begin.

A San Bernardino jury could not reach a verdict in the Superior Court trial for an alleged gang member suspected of fatally shooting 18-year-old Jarrett Ojomoh two years ago on the city's west side.

Jurors announced that they were deadlocked in the trial for Robert Harold McKinney on Tuesday morning before Judge Bryan F. Foster in San Bernardino Superior Court, according to court records.

After receiving the case for deliberation about mid-day Feb. 10, the jury deliberated all day Feb. 11 and a half-day on Feb. 13 before returning to court Tuesday, records indicate. McKinney, 20, is scheduled to return to court Mar. 13 for a pretrial hearing.

Prosecutors say the defendant was driving a car that pulled alongside and began shooting at Ojomoh and a friend as they walked eastbound on 19th Street, near Medical Center Drive, on Apr. 11, 2007.

Prosecutors rested their case Tuesday in the trial for alleged Esperanza Fire arsonist Raymond Lee Oyler in Riverside Superior Court, giving way to the defense to call witnesses.

Five U.S. Forest Service fire personnel died fighting the intense blaze more than two years ago.

Prosecutors rested their case following the mid-day break, and the defense began calling witnesses, according to the court's online records. Jurors are scheduled to return to court at 9:30 a.m. today for the trial to resume.

Witness testimony got underway this morning in the trial for a Pomona gang member who authorities say gunned down Shanar Goulsby more than three years ago, after chasing him through his girlfriend's apartment in San Bernardino.

Defendant Alvin Williamson Jr. reportedly had a handgun and confronted the victim, 25-year-old Goulsby, outside of the East Date Street apartment on Aug. 2, 2005. Minutes earlier, Goulsby had been in a fist fight with his girlfriend's brother over a broken stereo in the apartment's outdoor patio.

Williamson, known as "Satan" in the gang, reportedly told Goulsby he had four minutes to leave or he was going to shoot him, prosecutors told the jury during opening remarks today in San Bernardino Superior Court.

A Hesperia man charged with the shooting death of a 49-year-old man during a robbery at the San Bernardino Motel in 2007 is scheduled to begin trial proceedings tomorrow, prosecutors confirmed.

Lawyers are set to begin arguing motions and selecting jurors in the trial for 19-year-old Terrell Travon Austin in San Bernardino Superior Court, Deputy District Attorney Beth Houser confirmed.

Prosecutors say Austin, the suspected gunman, and co-defendant Camille Patterson, 17, tried to rob Virgil Fleming at the Foothill Boulevard motel when shots were fired. Fleming was targeted because he appeared to have a lot of money, they said.

A trial is set to get underway tomorrow for a High Desert man charged with the shooting death of a 62-year-old man whose body was fished out of the California Aqueduct by authorities in March 2007.

Steven Anderson Jones, 21, of Victorville, faces charges of murder and burglary in the death of David Van Fleet, who Sheriff's officials say was shot in his Victorville home a week before his body was discovered.

A jury was selected and sworn last week to the case in Victorville Superior Court, according to court records.

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.

Testimony began today in a trial for a San Bernardino parolee accused in the deadly slaying four years ago of his 25-year-old ex-girlfriend in the front yard of a 10^th Street home where she lived.

Defendant Orienthal Liggins is representing himself at trial on murder charges in the death of Erika Munoz before Judge Brian McCarville in San Bernardino Superior Court.

Liggins, 34, is accused of stabbing Munoz numerous times with a large kitchen knife, while a male neighbor tried to intervene and strike the attacker with the blunt end of a machete during the early morning hours of Dec. 23, 2004.

A jury has reached verdicts for a second defendant in a Highland liquor and video store robbery in 2005 that left a store owner and clerk dead, court officials announced.

The verdicts on charges against Darwin Lamont Richardson will be read at 1:30 p.m. today in San Bernardino Superior Court. The jury reached the verdicts late yesterday, but court officials scheduled them to be announced this afternoon, said Deputy District Attorney Dan Detienne.

A separate jury, in the same case, found co-defendant Christopher Turelle White guilty on similar charges earlier this week. White was found guilty of two counts of murder, two counts of second-degree robbery and multiple special allegations, including using a firearm during the acts and committing multiple murders.

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.

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.

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 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.

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 defense lawyer for a man suspected of murder, when his vehicle battery struck another motorist after he crashed while chasing an ex-girlfriend on a local freeway, can begin calling witnesses this afternoon in Superior Court. Prosecutors rested their case yesterday.

Harville's Ford Explorer rolled over several times on the southbound 215 Freeway, near Mill Street, pitching the battery into opposing traffic where it struck and killed motorist 30-year-old Shawn Billings Kettlewell in October 2006.

After three days of witness testimony, Deputy District Attorney Terry Brown rested his case yesterday afternoon in the trial against Kevin Harville in San Bernardino Superior Court, according to court records.

A woman, who was charged with threatening a witness during a San Bernardino murder trial involving gang members, took a plea bargain Wednesday that will give her eight years in state prison, prosecutors confirmed.

Loretta Ruiz Carrasco pleaded guilty to one count of criminal threats and a street gang sentence enhancement as trial proceedings were underway in her own case in San Bernardino Superior Court, according to Deputy District Attorney Robert Bulloch.

 

The defendant returns to court Jan. 9 for sentencing.

Prosecutors alleged Carrasco, 39, made a threatening gesture to a witness who testified on Sept 25, 2007 at a trial for Jose Ralph Marquez, Daniel Olguin and Yolanda Marie Trivizo. Authorities immediately detained and questioned Carrasco in the courtroom.

Trial proceedings are scheduled to resume next week for Kevin Harville, who is suspected in the unusual death of a motorist on the 215 Freeway when he crashed while chasing an ex-girlfriend.

Harville's Ford Explorer rolled over several times on the southbound 215 Freeway, near Mill Street, pitching the vehicle's battery into opposing traffic where it struck and killed motorist 30-year-old Shawn Billings Kettlewell in October 2006.

The trial is scheduled to resume Monday in San Bernardino Superior Court after proceedings were postponed for more than a week when Deputy Public Defender Rod Curbelo was injured, according to Superior Court records.