Feature story about Freddy Najarro case

The past couple weeks at Freddy Najarro's murder trial, the subject of his 1996 manslaughter conviction has come up a few times in conversations with Dennis Smalling's friends and family members.

(Najarro was convicted of voluntary manslaughter today for Smalling's 1992 stabbing death.)

I dug up a long article I wrote last year about Najarro -- it goes into detail about Smalling's death, and about Najarro's 1996 manslaughter conviction.

Najarro, who was then working as a bartender in Fontana, struck a man in the face with the butt of a rifle, killing him. Najarro was upset at the man over an unpaid $8 bar tab.

The story also mentions an unsolved killing from 1994 at the same bar -- Las Palomas, 17904 Foothill Blvd. Victor Byrd, a black man, was shot to death there. The suspects were described as two Hispanic men.

San Bernardino County sheriff's Detective Greg Myler -- one of the department's two full-time cold-case investigators -- told me today that he's unfamiliar with the details of the case. He said he and his partner have hundreds of unsolved cases, and haven't begun investigating Byrd's death.

Here's the feature story. Click on each image to view a larger version.

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