August 2010 Archives

LOS ANGELES - New details of a teen's slaying at a Pomona house party were revealed in court testimony today during a preliminary hearing for seven young men charged in the case.

Marquis LeBlanc, 18, was beaten by a group of young men at a Virginia Avenue party on April 17, 2009 after he took out a gun and waved it at people, according to witnesses.

LeBlanc, of Diamond Bar, escaped his assailants after an initial beating and ran down Virginia Avenue. The group chased him and caught up to him four or five houses away, a witness said this morning.

A man struck LeBlanc in the head with a two-by-four and he dropped to the ground. The rest of the group commenced "stomping" the teen, according to a witness who watched the beating through a window at his home.

The crowd eventually dispersed, leaving LeBlanc on the ground, but two or three men remained. One of the men retrieved a handgun from a car. As he approached LeBlanc, who lay motionless, one of the other men confronted him, the witness said.

"He was pushing him, telling him not to do it, not to do it because it wasn't worth it," the witness said. "He just pushed him away."

The man holding the gun walked to LeBlanc and shot him once, killing him. The man who tried to keep the shooter away lifted his hands to his head, the witness said.

Today was the second day of testimony in a preliminary hearing for seven young men charged in LeBlanc's killing. Three others also face criminal charges, but a preliminary hearing for them won't be held until November.

At a preliminary hearing, prosecutors must present evidence for a case to proceed to trial.

Eight people are charged with murder for LeBlanc's killing: Adrian Zuniga, 16; Luis Martinez, 19; Adam Delgado, 21; Edgar Cisneros, 20; Richard Vasquez, 18; Victor Guillen, 18; Ralph Richard Alfaro, 18; and Martin Haro, 16.

Efrain Prado, 21, and Haro are charged with assault. Arturo Casas, 21, is charged with robbery.

During the hearing at the Clara Foltz Criminal Justice Center in downtown Los Angeles, several witnesses have complained of intimidation from supporters of the defendants.

Judge William R. Pounders has admonished the defendants' supporters not to speak to witnesses in courthouse hallways, and this afternoon he had his admonishment translated by a Spanish-language interpreter.

"I'm getting very tired of witnesses in this case being threatened," the judge said.

Some witnesses - including those who have complained of intimidation - have recanted in their testimony prior statements to police identifying LeBlanc's attackers.

One 19-year-old woman who recanted identifications of three of LeBlanc's assailants began crying on the witness stand this afternoon when a prosecutor asked her if she feared retaliation.

Three of the witnesses to testify today described text messages they received from Haro after LeBlanc's killing. In the messages, Haro used racial slurs to describe LeBlanc, who was black, and in one message said, "We killed the fool."

Testimony in the hearing is set to resume Wednesday morning.

LOS ANGELES - The first witnesses testified today in a preliminary hearing for several young men accused of participating in an 18-year-old man's killing last year at a Pomona house party.

Marquis LeBlanc, 18, was beaten by group of men on April 17, 2009 at a party in the 2100 block of Virginia Avenue, then chased down the street and fatally shot as he tried to escape, prosecutors allege.

The crowd at the party was predominantly Latino, and during the incident many of the accused assailants hurled racial epithets at LeBlanc, who was black, witnesses said.

One of LeBlanc's friends and a cousin of the party's organizer detailed the incident on the witness stand today at the Clara Foltz Criminal Justice Center in downtown Los Angeles.

The witnesses were identified in court, but their names are being withheld for fear of gang retaliation.

At a preliminary hearing, prosecutors must present evidence - typically through court testimony - for a case to proceed to trial.

Seven of 10 young men charged in the case appeared in court today for a preliminary hearing. A preliminary hearing for three of the defendants was postponed last week to Nov. 2 because of attorneys' scheduling conflicts.

LeBlanc's friend testified that he and LeBlanc - both Diamond Bar residents - were at a bowling alley in Diamond Bar with another friend when the witness received a text message about a house party in Pomona.

When the group arrived at the party at 10 or 10:30 p.m., there were 50 to 70 people there. LeBlanc was one of only three or four black people at the party, LeBlanc's friend estimated.

LeBlanc and his friend tried to dance with girls at the party, but neither had any luck attracting a partner. Later, the friend said he saw a man wearing a windbreaker jacket with "Pomona" lettering confront LeBlanc.

The man pointed to a tattoo on his neck and said, "Do you see my tattoo?" the friend recalled. "Marquis was like, 'I don't want any problems."

"It didn't appear friendly or hostile," the friend testified. "Marquis was brushing it off like it was nothing."

LeBlanc and his friend became separated at the party, and the friend said he didn't see LeBlanc again until he was shot.

A cousin of the organizer of party - thrown to celebrate a graduation - testified that she was inside the home, and through a window to the back yard she saw LeBlanc draw a pistol, wave it around and point it at several people.

People in the back yard scattered, providing space for LeBlanc to move along the side of the home toward the front, the woman testified.

But as LeBlanc moved away, the woman said several young men followed him. They caught up to him on the side of the house and began beating him, the woman said.

LeBlanc was laying on the ground, hunched over to protect himself, as a group of as many as 15 young men took turns kicking and punching him, the woman testified.

The woman said she opened the side door and cleared the crowd to help LeBlanc. She said she led him though a gate to the front yard and told him to run.

"He just looked at me, and he just ran down the street," the woman said.

As LeBlanc ran away, 16 or 17 people chased him, the woman testified.

"I heard them say, 'Stomp that [racial epithet]. Get him for what he did. Don't let him go. Don't let him go. Get him,'" the woman testified.

The woman said that after LeBlanc ran away, she went outside to close the front gate to the house.

"I heard somebody yell, 'Pomona, Pomona,' and that's when I heard gunshots," the woman testified.

When LeBlanc's friend saw people scattering from the party and heard a gunshot in the street, he ran to find his friend. About four or five houses away he found LeBlanc lying on his back on the sidewalk, he testified.

LeBlanc had been shot and was unconscious. His friend testified that LeBlanc's pants were pulled down as if people had rifled through his pockets.

"It looked like he was bleeding from the head," the friend testified.

Eight people are charged with murder for LeBlanc's killing: Adrian Zuniga, 16; Luis Martinez, 19; Adam Delgado, 21; Edgar Cisneros, 20; Richard Vasquez, 18; Victor Guillen, 18; Ralph Richard Alfaro, 18; and Martin Haro, 16.

Efrain Prado, 21, and Haro are charged with assault. Arturo Casas, 21, is charged with robbery.

Prosecutors initially charged seven people with murder, but Haro's name was added to the count today in an amended complaint.

Prosecutors allege that the eight defendants charged with murder committed their crimes to benefit a street gang.

Testimony in the preliminary hearing is set to resume Tuesday morning.

The son of the driver who struck and killed her friend Wednesday in the Claremont Village sent me an email today with new details on the incident.

Nicholas Calderon, son of driver Brenda Monahan, sent this message today about the accident that killed Catherine Shelton.

To whom it may concern:

Your article makes it seem like Brenda drove the car up the curb, into Catherine, and 100 feet after finally crashing into a planter.

As the car was parked Brenda reached back to grab her purse before exiting the car for Catherine to jump in and drive when the car may have jumped into gear (though its not confirmed how the car started to move). After jumping up the curb, Brenda battled with controlling the car, her left leg was actually run over and she was compressed between two cars as she hung onto the steering wheel trying to veer the car away from people where it finally crashed into the planter. She was not actually in control or driving the car, and the damages to the car on the driver's side door show that the car impacted as the door was open--the door was bent out from the hinge, pushed out from its place. In addition, Brenda was not "sedated" but medicated by the doctors at the hospital. This information is supported by the police report, please review it.

Catherine was an incredible lady, and we all loved her dearly. She was a part of the family and this incident is a heavy pain for all of us to bear.

Regards,
Nicholas Calderon, son of Brenda Monahan.

LOS ANGELES - About a dozen witnesses are expected to testify next week in a preliminary hearing for several young men charged in connection with a man's killing last year at a party in Pomona.

Marquis LeBlanc, 18, of Diamond Bar, was beaten, stabbed and shot to death on April 17, 2009 outside a party in the 2200 block of Virginia Avenue, according to police.

Jessica Corde, LeBlanc's mother, said her son was robbed and his assailants stole his shoes after the attack.

LeBlanc was the only black person at a party of about 200, which consisted primarily of Latinos. Leblanc's family members believe race was a motive in his killing.

Prosecutors have charged seven men with murder, and three others face charges of assault or robbery.

A preliminary hearing, at which prosecutors must present evidence for a felony case to proceed to trial, was scheduled to begin this morning in the Clara Foltz Criminal Justice Center in downtown Los Angeles.

The hearing was postponed to Monday because several defense attorneys had scheduling conflicts. The hearing is expected to last five days.

A preliminary hearing for three of the 10 defendants was postponed to Nov. 2 because of scheduling conflicts.

Charged with murder in the case are Adrian Zuniga, 16; Luis Martinez, 19; Adam Delgado, 21; Edgar Cisneros, 20; Richard Vasquez, 18; Victor Guillen, 18; and Ralph Richard Alfaro, 18.

Efrain Prado, 21, and Martin Haro, 16, are charged with assault. Arturo Casas, 21, is charged with robbery.

Prosecutors allege that the seven defendants charged with murder committed their crimes to benefit a street gang.

Pictured are Catherine Shelton (left) and Brenda Monahan. (Photo from Facebook)

CLAREMONT -- The pedestrian hit by a car and killed this week in the Village was identified by friends today as Catherine Shelton.

Shelton, 42, was killed Wednesday in the 400 block of West First Street when a car driven by her friend and roommate, Brenda Monahan, accelerated onto the sidewalk.

The women's mutual friends said the incident was accidental, and said Monahan, who police interviewed and released at the crash scene, was devastated.

"They were like sisters," said Chas Seward, Monahan's boyfriend of nine years. "It was her best friend. It's a tragedy."

Monahan is the owner of Three French Hens, a Village boutique that is in the process of relocating to a vacant space in the city's Village West shopping area.

Shelton, a real estate agent, was with Monahan Wednesday to help her with the boutique's relocation, the women's friends said.

According to one of Shelton's co-workers at Coldwell Banker, the two women were inside Monahan's Infiniti SUV at about 10:40 a.m. when it pulled into a parking space on the south side of First Street.

Shelton, who was in the front-passenger seat of the car, left the vehicle and walked around the front of the car toward the driver's side, Paul Piedrahita said.

While Shelton was in front of the car, it accelerated and drove over the curb, striking Shelton, Piedrahita said.

Piedrahita said witnesses told him Shelton hit a wall and fell to the ground after she was struck. Monahan drove east on the sidewalk for about 100 feet and crashed into a planter.

Shelton was pronounced dead at 11:21 a.m. at Pomona Valley Hospital Medical Center, police said.

Piedrahita, who went to the hospital with Shelton, said doctors told him Shelton lost consciousness when she was hit and never regained it.

Claremont police Lt. Dennis Smith said an investigation into the crash won't be complete for two or three weeks.

Smith said he doesn't know whether the department will forward its findings to the Los Angeles District Attorney's Office for possible criminal prosecution.

By this afternoon, several bouquets of flowers and candles had been left in the area where Shelton was hit.

A hand-written message taped to the front door of Monahan's business said, "Our prayers are with you both and your families."

Piedrahita called Shelton the "princess" of Claremont. She had lived in the city for about 14 years, and her son graduated in 2009 from Claremont High School.

She helped establish a group of friends and professional colleagues known informally as the "Thursday night crew" that made weekly social outings in the Village, Piedrahita said.

"That built a lot of good friendships and relationships she was responsible for," he said.

Shelton lived in Seward and Monahan's Claremont home the past four months, Seward said.

"She was like a sister to us," he said. "We just can't believe it happened."

Monahan was sedated today and "not in a condition to say anything" to a reporter, Seward said.

On Monahan's Facebook page, dozens of friends left supportive messages.

"I want you to know the Lord is by your side at this moment," Susan Brunasso said. "You are so loved and are in the prayers of so many including mine."

RANCHO CUCAMONGA -- The retrial for a former elementary school teacher accused of molesting several students began this morning, with prospective jurors summoned to West Valley Superior Court.

James Andrew Megaw, 43, faces four felonies for allegedly committing lewd or lascivious acts on four children in his class at Valencia Elementary School in Upland.

His first trial ended in a mistrial in May when a jury deadlocked in its deliberations.

Eighty prospective jurors filled out questionnaires today in Judge Michael A. Sachs' courtroom.

Sachs said that attorneys will spend the rest of the week reviewing the responses, and prospective jurors will return to court next Monday morning to continue jury selection.

Sachs estimated the trial will last 20 days.

At Megaw's first trial, five former students -- both boys and girls -- testified that Megaw sexually abused them during class.

A sixth student said Megaw, of Rancho Cucamonga, made a lewd comment to him in a school bathroom.

Two of the students' allegations are uncharged by prosecutors because nearly a decade has passed since the incidents and the statute of limitations is expired.

The jury in Megaw's first trial deadlocked 8-4 in favor of guilt on one count. For the remaining three counts, jurors favored acquittal by tallies of 10-2 (two counts) and 9-3.

A previous report that jurors favored acquittal on all counts was incorrect.

FONTANA -- Prosecutors filed gross vehicular manslaughter charges this week against a man accused in a 2008 drunken driving crash on the 15 Freeway.

Marc Anthony Saavedra, 30, is accused of crashing his pickup truck on April 29, 2008 into a limousine that was parked on the shoulder of the freeway near the Sierra Avenue offramp in Fontana, according to a California Highway Patrol spokesman.

The limo driver, Frantz Jones of Compton, was hospitalized in critical condition after the crash, Officer Jeff Briggs said.

Saavedra was convicted in March of two felonies -- hit and run and DUI causing injury -- and sentenced to a year in jail.

Between then and Wednesday, when prosecutors filed manslaughter charges, Jones succumbed to injuries he suffered in the crash, according to the felony complaint filed by prosecutors.

Briggs said today that he didn't know when Jones died, and the prosecutor who filed the case, Deputy District Attorney Norma Alejo, could not be reached for comment.

Saavedra was arrested Thursday and held without bail at West Valley Detention Center in Rancho Cucamonga, according to booking records.

Gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated carries a maximum prison sentence of 10 years.

Jones' limo was parked on the shoulder of the freeway because the vehicle had mechanical problems, Briggs said.

Jones and a passenger were standing beside the limo when it was sideswiped. The passenger, Mary Lucas of Ontario, was injured in the collision, Briggs said.

FONTANA -- A judge declared a mistrial this afternoon in the trial of a former Garey High School teacher accused of sneaking into his estranged wife's home and trying to strangle her.

The mistrial in Augustine Anene's case came after jurors said they were deadlocked in their deliberations.

The jury convicted Anene of only one of the five counts filed by prosecutors. The guilty verdict was for the least serious charge -- a misdemeanor for violating a restraining order obtained by Anene's wife.

Prosecutors will now have the option of retrying Anene on the four remaining counts, which are all felonies. The charges include attempted murder, burglary, false imprisonment and assault.

"I don't know what we're going to do at this time," said Deputy District Attorney Tonya Cole. "Obviously we'll try to resolve it if we can."

Prosecutors accused Anene, 54, of hiding in his wife's bedroom closet on March 29 in his family's Fontana home, and emerging to attack her after she fell asleep.

Anene moved out of the home in January after his wife of 19 years obtained a restraining order requiring him to stay away from her.

The alleged attack was interrupted by the couple's 18-year-old son, who kicked open his mother's locked bedroom door and restrained his father.

Anene, who testified during the trial, claimed he snuck into the house because he felt it was the best way to gain access to his wife.

But he wanted only to talk to her to try to repair their marriage, not attack her, according to his attorney, Gina Kershaw.

Kershaw said she and Anene were disappointed by the result because they had hoped for an acquittal.

"I thought we had a really good case," she said.

Seven out of 12 jurors favored acquittal on the attempted murder charge. For the other three felonies, the jury favored guilt. On two of the counts the tally was 8-4, and on the other it was 9-3.

"I believe we've done what we can," the jury forewoman told Judge Cara D. Hutson.

Kershaw said she didn't think Anene was willing to take a plea bargain. She said Anene wasn't interested before his trial in a plea bargain, instead deciding on "putting his faith in the jury."

Anene is due back in Fontana Superior Court on Sept. 17 for a pre-trial hearing. A tentative trial date was set for Sept. 27.

Anene was employed by the Pomona Unified School District for 18 years. At the time of his arrest he worked as a computer instructor at Garey High School. He resigned his position after his arrest.

CHINO -- An Ayala High School basketball booster accused of embezzlement said in an interview Wednesday that he's innocent of criminal charges.

Donald Williamson said that during his two-month stint last year as president of the booster club for the Chino Hills school's girls basketball program, he withdrew money from the club's bank account to reimburse himself for expenses incurred as president.

He claims he had no "criminal intent," and didn't know he was violating club rules or the law.

"Whatever I was doing, I was doing for the program," said Williamson, 49. "I was hustling for the girls."

Williamson's comments came after an arraignment in Chino Superior Court, in which he pleaded not guilty to two felonies filed last month by prosecutors.

He faces charges of embezzlement and grand theft. Both charges allege he took more than $400.

Judge Gerard S. Brown appointed the San Bernardino County Public Defender's Office to represent him after Williamson told the judge his monthly income was $221.

Williamson, of Los Angeles, is next due in court Tuesday for a pre-preliminary hearing.

"I'm not confessing now," he said after the hearing. "I don't feel I did anything wrong."

Deputy District Attorney Steve Mitchell, the prosecutor assigned to Williamson's case, declined to respond to his comments.

"We'll just let the facts of the case come out at the preliminary hearing, if it gets that far," Mitchell said.

In an extensive interview, Williamson described himself as a "great father" who works hard to help his daughters' sports programs.

He acknowledged that he's served numerous prison terms, but he said he was honest with the basketball program about his past and no longer commits crimes.

"I truly regret it turned out this way," he said.

Williamson said he first became involved in the booster club at Ayala in fall 2008, during his daughter's freshman year at the school.

He said he's a professional chef who owns a mobile barbecue business, and he used his cooking skills to boost annual revenue at the team's snack bar from $800 to $3,800.

Because of his success running the snack bar, he said other boosters encouraged him to become more involved in the club. The following season, he said he ran unopposed to become the club's president.

After his election, he said the past president had debit cards made for him and the club's new treasurer allowing them to access the club's bank account. He said reimbursement rules were never explained to him.

During his time as president -- from October to December -- Williamson said he worked for the club six days a week for six to eight hours a day. He said he received no compensation.

Midway through his tenure, he moved to Inglewood. After his move, he said he drove frequently between Chino Hills and Inglewood.

He said that in addition to running the snack bar, he solicited donations and sponsorships for the program. He said the club's bank account ballooned to nearly $9,000 while he was president.

Williamson said he withdrew money from the account to cover his gas expenses. He recalled making three withdrawals: for $300, $200 and $40.

"I don't feel I've done anything wrong," Williamson said. "You gave me this position and didn't explain the position fully."

Williamson said he resigned the position in December after the club's board members questioned the way he handled the club's finances.

In arguing his innocence, Williamson noted that after the alleged embezzlement, there was several thousand dollars left in the account.

"If I steal something, I'm gonna go all out," he said.

He said he isn't open to a plea bargain, and he wants to take his case to trial.

"I just want to show the jury and the court that there's no criminal intent," he said.

Williamson's 15-year-old daughter now attends Summit High School in Fontana. She is 6-foot-3 and is has received recruitment letters from more than 40 Division I college basketball programs, Williamson said.

This story is part of a three-story package about Roberta Romero's killing that ran on Aug. 15. The main story on Romero's killing can be read here. A sidebar on Ralph Flores' murder case can be read here.

About a week before a preliminary hearing in May for Roberta Romero's accused killers, a prosecutor and Pomona police detectives met with their key witness in a conference room at the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office.

The witness, a relative of Romero's, was with the woman when she was shot and killed last year - reportedly because she testified against a high-ranking Azusa 13 gang member.

When the witness was served with a subpoena at the meeting and asked if she'd come to court, she shook her head and said she wouldn't appear, according to a court declaration written by Deputy District Attorney Ian Phan.

"I asked (the witness) two more times if she would honor the subpoena, and every time she responded in the negative," Phan wrote.

"As (the witness) left the conference room of the District Attorney's Office, I followed her out to the elevators and stated to her that I'll see her on Monday. (The witness) ignored me and entered the elevator without responding."

The witness's reluctance to come to court underscores the fear many witnesses have to testify in gang cases.

"Gangs operate by intimidation," Phan said in an interview. "And one of the things they do is they intimidate regular citizens in the community not to come forward and testify against them, so that they have free range within the community to do whatever they feel like doing."

Prosecutors have several methods to try to overcome witnesses' reluctance to speak to police and later testify in court, Phan said.

One of the methods was used to secure testimony from Romero's relative.

Prosecutors requested and obtained from a judge an arrest warrant for the witness - not because the witness was suspected in a crime, but because prosecutors needed her testimony.

"A lot of times what we have to do to get the body to court is ask the court to issue a bench warrant so that we can go out, and that allows the police to go out and arrest the person and bring the person into court," Phan said.

The witness was in custody when she testified a week after the meeting.

Another tool available to police and prosecutors in securing testimony is relocating witnesses to new areas if they feel threatened in their communities.

And if a witness recants previous statements when they testify, prosecutors can impeach their testimony by asking them questions containing specific information they told investigators, Phan said.

When witnesses are entered into protection, they are relocated to an apartment outside their former neighborhood and are told not to go back to the area where they might be threatened, Phan said.

"It's not like you see in the movies where you buy them a house or something like that," Phan said. "No, nothing like that. It's basically first and last month's rent, plus food for a couple months and utilities for a couple months."

Even when witnesses come to court to testify, because they feel intimidated in gang cases they often claim they can't remember speaking to police, Phan said.

"When they come down to the police station, nobody knows they're talking to the police," Phan said. "And then all of a sudden they get a subpoena, they come to court and they say, 'Oh my God, I gotta come to court now and testify?'

"And a lot of them will come to court and say, 'Oh no, I never told the police that,' or, 'I don't remember saying that.' And they recant.

"And that's why we have a lot of, in gang cases especially, we have witnesses who will not come to court and tell us what they told the police.

"So we have to essentially, what we do in court is impeach them with the prior statements that they made to the police."

This story is part of a three-story package about Roberta Romero's killing that ran on Aug. 15. The main story on Romero's killing can be read here. A sidebar on witness intimidation can be read here.

Pictured: Ralph Flores

Ralph Flores, 28, was a high-level enforcer for Azusa 13 and the right-hand man of the group's "key holder," who runs the gang in the neighborhood.

He was sentenced to death two years ago after he was convicted of committing four murders over a five-year span.

The victims included a woman believed to be a police informant, a member of a rival gang, an uncooperative gang associate, and a 16-year-old boy who Flores killed because he was black.

Roberta Romero's testimony against Flores helped to secure his conviction on one murder -- for the killing of Azusa 13 associate Fenise Luna, who was tortured and strangled after Flores and other gang members were unable to get her to sign over the pink slip to her car.

Luna's killing, on Dec. 29, 2004, was Flores' final killing of the four.

Chris Lynch

On May 14, 1999, 16-year-old Chris Lynch and his older brother attended a birthday party in Azusa for a girl they knew.

Flores, who was then 17, approached the boy at the party and used a racial epithet to tell him to leave, according to court testimony.

Lynch, who was black, complied with Flores' demand and turned to walk out of the party.

While Lynch walked away, Flores shot him in the back with a rifle, Azusa police Detective Brandon Bailey testified in a 2005 preliminary hearing.

After Lynch fell face-down on the ground, Flores walked up to him and pressed his rifle to Lynch's back or the back or his head, said Deputy District Attorney Ian Phan.

"(He) tried to pull the trigger," Phan said. "And the gun jammed, or it went 'click,' and didn't fire."

Lynch died from Flores' single shot to his back. Lynch's shooting was one of several committed by Azusa 13 members a decade ago against black people.

"During that time in 1999, Azusa had a very bad crime problem where Azusa 13 gang members were committing crimes strictly against blacks," Bailey testified. "And it was an attempt to rid the city of any African Americans that were living in the city of Azusa."

"A lot of those crimes included fire bombings where Molotov cocktails were thrown through African American people's windows," Bailey continued. "Shootings, assaults, stabbings."

Claudia Rosio Chanet

Claudia Rosio Chanet was killed on Nov. 19, 2003 because Flores and other gang members believed she provided information to police that led to the arrest -- and subsequent death -- of her boyfriend, an Azusa 13 member named Anthony Martinez.

But the gang was mistaken about Chanet. "There's absolutely no evidence that she cooperated with anybody," Phan said.

The sequence of events leading to Chanet's death began when the Glendora Police Department arrested her on suspicion of selling methamphetamine.

She was released from custody about a week later after reaching a plea agreement with prosecutors, Phan said.

Shortly after her release, Azusa police officers conducting a separate investigation arrested Martinez for drug sales.

Before officers took Martinez into custody, he swallowed balloons of heroin hoping to conceal them from police, Phan said.

"One of the bags burst," Phan said. "He OD'd and he died while he was in custody."

Because of the timing of Chanet's release and Martinez's arrest, gang members believed she provided information to police - making her a "rat" in the gang's eyes.

"And so Flores took it upon himself, or Flores went out there and committed the murder, because he believed that she was responsible for (Martinez's) death," Phan said.

Chanet's mother testified at preliminary hearing in 2005 that she was in the laundry room in her Azusa apartment at about 11 p.m. when she began hearing her daughter screaming, "Mommy."

Chanet's mother opened the laundry room door, and her daughter ran through, fell into her arms, then fell to the ground. Chanet had been shot about six times in the back and neck, her mother testified.

Chanet's mother said she watched two men run away from her apartment complex.

"I ran back to my daughter and all she can tell me was, 'Mommy, take care of the kids. The kids, take care of them.' And that was it," she said.

"Did she die there in your apartment?" Deputy District Attorney Pete Bliss asked at the hearing.
"Yes," Chanet's mother responded.

After the shooting, Chanet's mother discovered her car had been keyed with Azusa 13 tags, and there was graffiti on her garage. She said the managers of her apartment building asked her to move out.

A former gang associate testified that Flores boasted to him about several killings, including Chanet's. "I took care of her," Flores said, according to the witness.

Miguel Reyes

Three days before Fenise Luna was tortured and strangled, Flores shot and killed Miguel Reyes because Reyes, while attending a party in Azusa, said he was a member of a rival West Covina gang.

Two of Reyes' friends, who were with him at the party, testified that while they were there Flores and two other men walked up to them and asked where they were from - code in gang culture to identify your gang affiliation.

Reyes' two friends, who testified in a preliminary hearing, told them they weren't from anywhere and were attending the party to enjoy themselves, according to a transcript of their testimony.

Reyes, who was intoxicated, said he was from West Covina Trece.

When Reyes' friends overheard the gang reference, they anticipated trouble. The two men retrieved Reyes and the group left the party.

As they were approaching their car, Flores and the other men caught up to them.

One of Reyes' friends remembered hearing someone yell, "Who's from West Cochina?" a derogatory slang term for West Covina.

Once he identified Reyes, Flores opened fire, shooting and killing him.

"Flores hunted him down and shot him in between the eyes," Phan said. "I remember vividly the picture of the kid that was killed. ... He had a bullet hole in the middle of his head."

This story is part of a three-story package about Roberta Romero's killing that ran on Aug. 15. A sidebar on Ralph Flores' murder case can be read here. A sidebar on witness intimidation can be read here.

Pictured: The Pomona street where Roberta Romero was killed.

During the ride that ended in her death, Roberta Romero tried to reason with the two gang members who forced her into their car.

She apologized and said she'd made a mistake when she testified against Ralph Flores, a high-ranking Azusa 13 gang member who was convicted of four murders two years ago and sentenced to death.

Romero, a one-time associate of the gang, said she wasn't the only person from her Azusa neighborhood who testified against Flores, nicknamed "Swifty," an enforcer for the gang who police described as the right-hand man of one of the group's leaders.

Romero's captors tried to reassure her. "They just said they are going to take her to talk to someone," said an eyewitness to Romero's killing who was in the car and later testified in court.

When the group reached Bellevue Avenue and Glenpark Street in Pomona, Rodney Perez parked the car. The L-shaped intersection has no streetlights, and it was dark when the group arrived at about 5 a.m. on May 11, 2009.

Romero lit a cigarette. Before she could finish it, Perez opened his door, walked around the car and opened Romero's door.

Perez told Romero to get out of the car. When she refused, Perez grabbed her arm and pulled her out, according to the eyewitness, one of Romero's relatives.

They walked behind the car, and the other alleged gang member, Ramiro Alvarez, got out of the car and followed them.

Romero knelt in the road and pleaded for her life.

Mark Pineda, who lives down the street, said another neighbor overheard Perez and Romero's conversation.

Romero was apologizing and Perez sounded agitated. The neighbor who overheard the conversation at first thought it was a lovers' quarrel, Pineda said.

"She kept pleading," Pineda said. "You could hear her pleading."

The eyewitness, whose identity is being withheld for fear of gang retaliation, said she saw Perez shoot Romero twice with a handgun.

When police arrived at the intersection, Romero, 24, was dead.

She had fallen to her side, with her body still positioned in a kneel. Pineda said he saw a bullet wound just above Romero's left eyebrow.

Violence against 'rats'

Street gangs such as Azusa 13 often retaliate violently against people they view as "rats" for cooperating for law enforcement - particularly if the informants are members or associates of the gang, according to police and prosecutors.

"If you're a gang member of if you're just anybody, being a rat or snitch on a gang is one of those things you don't do," said Deputy District Attorney Ian Phan, who prosecuted Flores and is now prosecuting Romero's accused killers.

"And if they believe you've snitched on somebody or that you're ratted out on somebody, you pay the ultimate price."

Romero, an Azusa native, was an associate of Azusa 13 and has very strong ties to the gang, Azusa police Lt. Michael Bertelsen testified at a May preliminary hearing in Romero's killing.

Bertelsen said Romero has family members from the gang and has had children with members of the gang.

As an associate, Romero and others in her position are entrusted to remain silent about crimes committed by the gang, Bertelsen said.

"They trust you," he said. "They take you out and they commit crimes with you and they expect that you are not going to break that code and provide information."

Bertelsen identified Flores, 28, as a "respected member within the gang." His mentor is the gang's "key holder" - the person who runs the gang in the neighborhood.

Flores and the key holder, Santiago Rios, known as "Chico," have matching "Azusa" tattoos above their upper lips.

"I've been told that 'Swifty' was 'Chico's' right-hand man," Bertelsen said. "He would go out and commit crimes on his behalf at his direction."

In retaliating against gang members or associates labeled as rats, gangs are often aided by the easy access they have to their victims in tight-knit communities, Bertelsen said.

"They frequently kill people that they know," he said. "It can be easier to do it. You know somebody, you know who their family is, you can contact them.

"They feel more comfortable around you and you don't have to drive them off kicking and screaming. You can in essence walk up to them and do what you've been tasked to do."

Fenise Luna killing

The killing that Romero witnessed and later testified to occurred on Dec. 29, 2004 in Azusa.

Anthony Almarez, a member of the Azusa 13 gang, faced criminal charges, and the gang needed money to pay for a lawyer.

Flores and other gang members decided they would try to coerce a gang associate named Fenise Luna to sign over the pink slip to her car to raise money to pay for a lawyer.

Romero was with a group of gang members - including Flores - on the night Luna, 28, was tortured and killed after she refused to sign over title to her car, a 1999 Ford Expedition.

According to an appellate court summary of Luna's killing, Luna met with her drug dealer, Flores, and a third man, Steven Zamora, hoping to buy $40 worth of methamphetamine.

While meeting with the three men in Zamora's garage on Duell Street near Azusa High School, Zamora and Flores attacked her.

While they were inside the garage, Romero waited outside in a parked car. Romero later testified that she didn't know what the men planned to do to Luna.

The first strike against Luna came when Zamora pressed a Taser to her neck. The weapon malfunctioned and didn't discharge, so Zamora punched Luna in the face, according to the case summary.

She fell to the ground, hit her head on the pavement and began bleeding.

According to the case summary, Flores then punched Luna in the face several times. He retrieved a rope and strangled Luna, then hung her from a beam in the garage.

After Luna was dead, the men hog-tied her arms and legs behind her back, wrapped her in a white sheet and loaded her into the trunk of her car.

Romero testified that she saw Flores and Zamora load Luna's body into the car. She followed the men when they parked Luna's car a half-mile away, then gave them a ride home.

Romero's testimony helped convict Flores and Zamora. Flores was sentenced to death, and Zamora received a prison sentence of 85 years to life, Phan said.

Under cross-examination from one of the men's attorneys during a 2006 preliminary hearing, Romero said she shared her story with detectives after they told her she could be charged as an accessory to Luna's killing.

Phan said he believes part of Romero's motivation for cooperating with authorities was that she felt it was the right thing to do.

"I think she did the right thing," Phan said. "Personally I think that she's a good person, and she saw what she saw, and she came forward and testified to the truth."

The actions of another witness in Flores' case underscore the gang's ability to intimidate witnesses.

The witness called by prosecutors immediately following Romero's testimony in Flores' preliminary hearing was a one-time gang associate who earlier told police about a conversation he had with Zamora in which Zamora detailed Luna's killing, according to a transcript of the hearing.

But when the man took the witness stand, his response to every question was the same: he could not remember.

He said he couldn't remember talking to Zamora or talking to a detective. Every response was, "No."

Romero tracked down

After Romero cooperated with authorities in Flores' case, she was relocated as part of a witness-protection program, according to Phan and police.

Phan said that in the program, witnesses are relocated to an apartment outside their former neighborhoods, and are provided with money for first and last month's rent as well as money for expenses.

Romero's alleged killers were able to find her through her family. One of her relatives was dating Ramiro Alvarez at the time of Romero's death.

The following account of Romero's death comes from her relative's testimony in a May preliminary hearing. Her identity is being withheld for fear of retaliation.

The morning of the killing, Alvarez, Perez and Romero's relative were sitting outside the relative's home in West Covina drinking alcohol. Perez asked to borrow the woman's cell phone to contact Romero.

He sent Romero a text message at 4:14 a.m. about her 7-year-old son, who was then asleep at her family member's home, according to a court declaration written by Phan.

"I need 2 pick u up asap jr is sick," the message said, according to Phan.

Perez told Romero that her son - who wasn't actually sick - needed to be taken to a hospital. Romero agreed to be picked up at a friend's house in West Covina to go the hospital with her son.

While Perez and the others were drinking outside at the home, Perez asked Romero's relative if he could go inside to use the restroom.

When he rejoined the group, he was carrying Romero's son, who was asleep and wrapped in a blanket.

Perez put the boy in the front passenger seat of his car. Alvarez and Romero's relative sat in the back seat as the group left to pick up Romero.

When they arrived at Romero's friend's house, Romero asked her relative what was wrong with her son. After her relative told her nothing was wrong with her son, Perez told her to get in the car.

"Rodney told her that if she wanted to see her baby, she needed to go with him," the relative testified at the preliminary hearing.

Romero got in the car and sat in the back seat with Alvarez and her relative. Her son was still asleep in the front seat.

Perez drove back to the relative's house and took the boy out of the car. As he walked toward the house carrying the child, Romero's relative walked alongside him.

"I asked Rodney what was going to happen or whatever with my sister and he said that he was just going to take her to talk to someone," the woman testified.

When the group resumed driving, Romero began pleading with Perez and Alvarez. Perez told her they were taking her to talk to someone.

The group drove for about a half-hour before they came to a dark commercial area. There was a police car or private security vehicle in the area, so they left.

The group proceeded to the intersection in Pomona where Romero was killed. Before Perez shot Romero, among the woman's final pleas were that she not be killed in front of her relative.

When Perez shot Romero, her family member ran from the car toward Romero. Perez and Alvarez called her back, and she complied. As the group sped south on Bellevue, Romero's relative was inconsolable. Alvarez, who was crying, apologized to her.

"(Perez) said that he was sorry and he said that if I want I could hit him," the woman said.
Alvarez told Perez that what they'd done was wrong. Perez's responded, according to the woman, by alluding to Flores' death sentence.

"He said he knows, but that the homie's going to die so they have to do it," the woman said.
The group drove to a home in Fontana where Alvarez's relatives live.

Alvarez's cousin later told a police officer that Alvarez was fidgety and pacing back and forth when he arrived and later began packing a duffel bag with clothing.

Alvarez's cousin, Alejandro Flores, asked him if he'd done something wrong. Alvarez ignored him, according to testimony from Pomona police Officer Jamie Martinez.

"Based on the brother's nervous action this led Alenajdro to ask him just straight out, 'Did you kill someone?" the officer said.

"Don't worry about it," Alvarez responded, according to the officer. "I just got to get out of here."
Azusa police, acting on a tip in Romero's killing, had staked out the home in Fontana. When Perez and the others left, a detective alerted Fontana police.

Officers tried to pull over the group on the 10 Freeway, and Perez drove off at speeds of 130 to 140 mph, with Alvarez throwing two guns from the car. All three of the occupants were arrested after they exited the freeway.

After Romero was killed, her family made a memorial at the intersection of Bellevue and Glenpark, with candles and pictures of Romero.

Pineda, the man who lives nearby, recalled seeing family members grieving at the site.
"It was just so heartbreaking to see," he said.

Possible death penalty

Perez and Alvarez are eligible for the death penalty, but prosecutors haven't decided whether to pursue it.

Phan said the decision to pursue the death penalty will be made by a committee of Los Angeles County deputy district attorneys, with a decision likely to be made prior to Perez and Alvarez's next court date on Oct. 18.

Romero's killing is not the first time Perez, 30, has been implicated in a gang shooting.

An Azusa police lieutenant testified in the May preliminary hearing that Perez served a prison sentence for the 2000 shooting in Azusa of a black preacher - a stranger to the gang who was using a pay phone.

The shooting was part of a pattern of violence by Azusa 13 gang members against black people in Azusa, police and prosecutors say.

Alvarez, 26, has identified himself as an Azusa 13 member in contacts with Azusa police, Bertelsen testified.

Several of Alvarez's family members attended a hearing last month in Perez and Alvarez's case in Pomona Superior Court.

In a hallway outside the courtroom, Alvarez's relatives called him a good person and said he changed after spending several years in custody.

His mother, who declined to give her name, said Alvarez, who attended Slauson Middle School and Azusa High School, has been in and out of custody since he was 16.

"So everything he is now, he learned from being in there," she said. "What he is now - in there, in prison, they're the ones that changed him."

Alvarez's mother said she visited her son in jail after his arrest in Romero's killing, and he told her he was innocent.

"I believe him," she said. "We talked, and I believe him."

Alvarez's aunt, who asked to be identified by her first name, Ester, said: "All I can say about my nephew is I love him and he's a good man."

Romero's family members declined to comment to a reporter at the hearing.

POMONA -- Three people charged with murder for the weekend shooting death of 19-year-old Ramiro Chavez made their first court appearance today.

Miguel Ayala, 20, Jose Alfredo Rojas Martinez, 23, and Vincent Lopez, 17, appeared in Pomona Superior Court for an arraignment, but they did not enter pleas. The hearing was rescheduled for Sept. 1.

A prosecutor assigned to the case said after the hearing that the three people accused in Chavez's killing targeted the Pomona man because he was a member of a tagging crew.

The defendants, who all live in Pomona, "took him for a gang rival," said Deputy District Attorney Bjorn Dodd. "That was the reason he got shot."

Dodd said that Ayala and Lopez both shot Chavez, who was killed early Saturday morning in the 500 block of Weber Street, and Martinez served as the group's getaway driver.

They were arrested shortly after the shooting on Holt Avenue after police officers pulled over their van, which matched witnesses' descriptions of the shooters' vehicle.

Several relatives and supporters of Chavez and his accused killers were in court today. Many of them cried during the brief hearing.

Commissioner Wade D. Olson set bail for Ayala, Martinez and Lopez at $2 million.

POMONA - Prosecutors filed murder charges today against three people accused in the weekend shooting death in Pomona of 19-year-old Ramiro Chavez.

Miguel Ayala, 20, Jose Alfredo Rojas-Martinez, 23, and Vincent Martinez, a juvenile, are due Tuesday in Dept. F in Pomona Superior Court to be arraigned, according to court personnel. All three are from Pomona. Martinez is charged as an adult.

Chavez, of Pomona, was shot several times at about 12:45 a.m. Saturday in the 500 block of Weber Street.

Witnesses reported seeing a blue van in the area at the time of the shooting. A short time later, police stopped a blue Chevy Astro Van traveling east on Holt Avenue. Ayala, Rojas-Martinez and Martinez were inside the van, and were arrested.

View Ramiro Chavez shooting in a larger map

Pictured: The accident scene at Arrow and Vineyard, and Griffin's mug shot from his arrest prior to the crash by Ontario PD.

RANCHO CUCAMONGA -- A jury has convicted a man of four felonies in connection with a traffic collision last year that left a woman partially paralyzed.

Patrick Griffin, 42, was accused of stealing a car in Rancho Cucamonga on Nov. 3 and running several red lights as he fled a sheriff's deputy who tried to pull him over for a traffic violation.

When Griffin ran a red light at Arrow Route and Vineyard Avenue, he collided with a car being driven by 19-year-old Jessica Garcia, who now suffers partial paralysis on the right side of her body, said Deputy District Attorney Reza Daghbandan.

A blood test showed Griffin was legally drunk at the time of the crash, with a blood-alcohol level of 0.11, Daghbandan said.

A jury deliberated for about an hour last week before reaching guilty verdicts against Griffin, who faces up to 23 years in prison when he's sentenced Sept. 13 in West Valley Superior Court, Daghbandan said.

"We're going to ask for the maximum," the prosecutor said.

Griffin, a transient who lived in Washington state before coming to California, was convicted last week of evading a police officer, vehicle theft, and two counts related to drunken driving.

Daghbandan said he called eight witnesses during Griffin's week-long trial -- Garcia, her father, the owner of the stolen car, and five people who investigated the crash.

Griffin did not testify, and there were no defense witnesses, Daghbandan said.

Detectives initially believed Garcia, of Rancho Cucamonga, would die from head injuries she suffered in the crash, according to police reports. She was hospitalized in critical condition for at least two weeks after the collision.

While Garcia escaped death, her partial paralysis has left her unable to run, and makes walking difficult, Daghbandan said.

Garcia, who is right-handed, is now trying to learn to write with her left hand because of the paralysis to her right side, Daghbandan said.

"My understanding is that she was very happy with the verdict," Daghbandan said. "Her and her dad are both very happy with the verdict."

In addition to reaching guilty verdicts, jurors also found true an allegation by prosecutors that Griffin suffered a prior conviction -- for robbery, in Ohio in 2005. The prior conviction potentially lengthens Griffin's sentence, Daghbandan said.

"He's from just about everywhere," Daghbandan said. "He would travel to different states and commit crimes."

Griffin was arrested by Ontario police on drug charges in at about 3 a.m. on Nov. 3, but he was released from custody with a citation after a few hours in custody.

At about 1:30 p.m., Griffin allegedly stole a Toyota Camry from a Union 76 gas station at the corner of Arrow and Hermosa Avenue.

He was driving erratically as he left a shopping center at Arrow and Archibald Avenue, and a San Bernardino County sheriff's deputy who observed Griffin's erratic driving tried to pull him over for a traffic violation. The car had not yet been reported stolen.

When Griffin saw the deputy behind him, he sped away traveling west on Arrow. He ran red lights at Archibald, Hellman Avenue, and Vineyard, where he broadsided Garcia's 2010 Hyundai, which was traveling north on Vineyard.

RANCHO CUCAMONGA -- An 81-year-old Upland man was convicted of criminal charges this week for molesting a boy under 14 in his neighborhood.

Clarence Gordon pleaded no contest Thursday in West Valley Superior Court to a felony count of sexual battery.

Gordon's plea, made as part of a plea agreement with prosecutors, carries a 300-day jail sentence, five years of probation and lifetime registration as a sex offender. Sentencing is scheduled for Sept. 3.

"Given his age and lack of criminal record it's an appropriate disposition," said Gordon's prosecutor, Deputy District Attorney Karen Schmauss.

Gordon was arrested in June after a boy in his neighborhood told police Gordon molested him after asking the boy to come to his home in the 2200 block of Wendy Way to help him move furniture.

According to a police report attached to Gordon's court file, the longtime Upland resident admitted to police that he touched the boy.

In a 2005 Daily Bulletin profile, Gordon said he was a retired steelworker and married father of two who had lived in Upland since the 1950s.

Before his arrest, Gordon regularly attended Upland City Council meetings and spoke during the public comment segment of the meetings.

According to the police report, Gordon walked to the boy's home at about 11:30 a.m. on June 18 and asked his mother if the boy could come over.

The boy's family had known Gordon for several years, so his mother felt comfortable allowing the boy to go with Gordon.

Once Gordon and the boy were alone in the house, Gordon touched the boy's genitals for 15 to 30 minutes, the boy told police. The boy said Gordon continued over his objections.

After the boy's family contacted police, Gordon acknowledged he touched the boy, but he said the boy consented to the touching.

Six Pomona teens charged with murder in the January double slaying at Ted Green Park are due Monday in Pomona Superior Court for a preliminary hearing, in which prosecutors must present evidence for the case to proceed to trial.

Denzel Omar, 14, is accused of opening fire with a rifle on a group of rival gang members. Timmy Moore, 17, and Prithesh Dunn, 15, were killed in the alleged attack.

Five teens - three are 16 and two are 17 - are accused of aiding and abetting Omar's attack. The six defendants are charged as adults and could face life in prison without the possibility of parole.

At preliminary hearings, prosecutors typically draw testimony from police officers and others about an alleged crime.

A 2-year-old boy's death in April could have been prevented, his mother said.

Andrea Gallegos of Ontario said her son, Isaac Gallegos, returned home with injuries three times after visiting his father.

A social worker who investigated the claims ruled the abuse allegations were inconclusive.

And when Gallegos, 22, went to a judge after her son's first injury, the judge dismissed the mother's concerns - saying that with an inconclusive allegation he wouldn't limit the father's visitation rights.

Isaac's fourth injury proved to be fatal. During a visit to his father's Moreno Valley home in April, he suffered a blow to the side of his head.

His father, 26-year-old Alex Baeza, faces murder charges in connection with the boy's death and remains in jail awaiting trial in lieu of $1million bail.

Baeza has pleaded not guilty. A preliminary hearing in the case is set for Aug. 13.

Gallegos said Baeza told her the boy likely suffered the injury in a fall.

Gallegos and her family contend the judge, San Bernardino Superior Court Judge John M. Pacheco, should be disbarred for the way he handled her case.

They've filed a formal complaint against the judge with the state Commission on Judicial Performance.

"The judge was very upset the minute he walked in the courtroom," said Mike Lester, Gallegos' father. "He was very arrogant, very God-like. ... He was very rude. He was very unprofessional, in my opinion."

Pacheco could not be reached for comment. A staff member in his courtroom referred a media inquiry to San Bernardino County Presiding Judge Douglas Elwell.

Elwell said court rules prohibit Pacheco from commenting on a matter related to an active criminal case. Elwell declined to offer any opinion about his colleague's handling of Gallegos' case.

"It would be completely inappropriate," he said.

Gallegos said she asked to see a judge after her son returned home from a visitation with a large bruise on his butt and scratches on his back.

She hoped to modify Baeza's visitation rights, which allowed him to take the boy two days a week.

During a Sept. 4 hearing, Baeza told the judge that Isaac hurt himself jumping into a spa. After hearing both sides, Pacheco said he felt "very confident" Baeza didn't hurt the boy.

When Gallegos told the judge she feared for her son, Pacheco - a 2001 Gov. Gray Davis appointee - told her he believed she was overreacting.

"Now, if you continue to act this way, what I have to do is I'll have to take custody away from you and let - because I will give custody to the person that is most willing to cooperate with the other parent, and giving them custody, OK?" Pacheco said.

Because of the judge's remark, Gallegos said she was afraid to return to court when her son was injured two more times during visits with Baeza Both times her son's ears were bruised and appeared to have been pulled, she said.

"I was terrified to go back," Gallegos said.

Gallegos and her parents said they want to file a lawsuit against Pacheco, San Bernardino County and possibly others for Isaac's death. They say their motivation in doing so wouldn't be financial gain.

"It would be to protect other children," Gallegos said.

CHINO -- A man accused of fatally stabbing his neighbor and gouging one of his eyes out has reached a plea agreement with prosecutors that carries a 12-year prison sentence.

Roger Perchez, 31, was initially charged with murder for the 2005 stabbing death in Chino of Leopoldo Servin.

On Tuesday in Chino Superior Court, Perchez pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter, a charge contained in the plea bargain offered by prosecutors.

Servin, 24, died after he was stabbed 28 times in January 2005 and left in an alley in the 13400 block of Third Street. His left eye was gouged out, according to police reports.

Deputy District Attorney Steve Mitchell said Perchez was offered the plea bargain because prosecutors believed a voluntary manslaughter conviction was "likely the most positive result the people could have obtained at trial."

Mitchell said there was no physical evidence such as fingerprints, photos or DNA tying Perchez to Servin's killing.

The evidence against him came from witnesses with criminal histories, which would have been revealed to a jury in trial testimony, potentially harming the witnesses' credibility, Mitchell said.

The prosecutor also said the defense may have alleged in a trial that Perchez killed Servin because Perchez believed Servin molested his infant child. Both men lived in the same Chino apartment complex.

"It's my view that this is the best deal we could have obtained," Mitchell said. "That's why we entered into it."

Mitchell said Chino police detectives investigated Servin's killing over several years, eventually identifying Perchez as the killer. He was charged last year.

"The Chino Police Department carried the day on this, not the DA's Office," Mitchell said. "Had it not been for their efforts on this the case probably would not have ever been filed."

Perchez is scheduled to be sentenced Aug. 31.

RANCHO CUCAMONGA -- A pastor was sentenced to 120 days in jail this week following his conviction on bigamy charges.

Melvin Lynn Silas, pastor of Church of the Great I Am in Bellflower, was accused of marrying another woman two years ago while separated from his longtime wife.

Silas, a 55-year-old former Upland resident, pleaded no contest in April to a felony bigamy charge.

At his sentencing Tuesday in West Valley Superior Court, Silas was placed on probation for three years. If he violates his probation he could be sentenced to two years in state prison.

CHINO -- A low-level Motocross racer was sentenced to 180 days in jail this week for trying to bribe sheriff's deputies with event tickets following a drunken-driving arrest in Chino Hills.

Jered Peter Thomas, 20, was accused of offering tickets to San Bernardino County sheriff's deputies in exchange for his release after his January DUI arrest.

Thomas, a Chino native, pleaded guilty in May to bribery, a felony.

He was placed on probation for three years Tuesday in Chino Superior Court.

He is eligible to serve his jail sentence on weekends through the sheriff's work release program, said Deputy District Attorney Steve Mitchell.

FONTANA -- When her husband began choking her as she slept, Augustina Anene said she first believed she was having a bad dream.

"I felt pressure on my chest," she said. "I couldn't get air."

When she opened her eyes, she saw her estranged husband leaning over her, with one of his hands covering her mouth and the other hand on her throat.

She screamed for help and felt she was going to die. She was saved by her 18-year-old son, who kicked open his mother's bedroom door and pushed off his father.

Anene's account of her husband's alleged attack came in her testimony today during Augustine Anene's attempted murder trial in Fontana Superior Court.

Augustine Anene, a former computer instructor at Garey High School in Pomona, is accused of sneaking into his estranged wife's Fontana home on March 28 and hiding in her bedroom closet until she fell asleep.

After the incident, police found a crowbar in the wife's bed. Prosecutors believe it was left there by Augustine Anene.

Prosecutors say Augustine Anene's alleged attack was the culmination of more than a decade of emotional and physical abuse toward his wife of 19 years.

"It was not a good marriage, as you can probably tell," Deputy District Attorney Tonya Cole told jurors Monday in her opening statement.

Augustine Anene's attorney told jurors in her opening statement that the husband sneaked into his wife's home because he wanted to talk to her to try to repair their marriage.

"He was there to talk to her," Gina Kershaw told the jury of six men and six women. "That's all."

And because a restraining order prohibited him from contacting her, he felt approaching her as she slept was the only way to gain access without her calling police. He brought the crowbar to break in, not to use as a weapon, Kershaw said.

"Was it a situation where he had to sneak in? Yes," Kershaw said.

Augustine Anene, 54, will take the witness stand during the trial, Kershaw said.

"He is going to tell each of you what happened," she said.

Anene has been jailed in lieu of $2 million bail since his arrest the night of the alleged attack.
He resigned his teaching job in April after working 18 years for the Pomona Unified School District.

In a full day of testimony today, Augustina Anene detailed the times her husband allegedly abused her prior to March, and explained how their relationship deteriorated and led to their separation.

The woman testified that in 1999, her husband slapped her and drove her head into a pillow after they argued over a pornographic magazine she found in his backpack.

In 2005, the couple fought after Augustine Anene reportedly forged his wife's signature to refinance their mortgage, his wife testified.

Augustina Anene said her husband choked her until her mother-in-law, who was visiting, broke up the fight.

The wife said she declined to press charges after her mother-in-law begged her not to.

The final instance of abuse before the couple's separation came in December.

Augustine Anene had planned a trip to Nigeria, his native country, without telling his wife. During an argument about his transportation to LAX, he knocked her into a wall, his wife testified.

While Augustine Anene was in Nigeria, his wife obtained a restraining order prohibiting him from coming within 100 yards of her or the couple's four boys, and requiring him to move out of the family's home in the 17500 block of Firethorn Road.

When Augustine Anene returned from Nigeria and was served with the restraining order, he ransacked the family's home and took his wife's clothes, she testified.

In her opening statement, Kershaw cast Augustina Anene as a manipulative liar who complained about having to help pay the family's expenses despite her nearly six-figure annual income as a nurse.

"In this case Mr. Anene is not the controller," Kershaw said. "Mrs. Anene is the controller."
The couple had little contact -- besides seeing each other in court in divorce proceedings -- before Augustine Anene's alleged attack in March.

According to prosecutors, the husband carried out an extensive plan in trying to kill his wife and elude authorities.

He reportedly hid the phones in the house to delay family members should they try to contact police. He left his shoes outside and entered the house barefoot to minimize noise from his footsteps.

He also removed the license plates from his car, making his presence down the street less noticeable, Cole said in her opening statement.

POMONA -- A Glendora man pleaded not guilty this morning to criminal charges alleging he had sex with three underage boys.

David Snyder, 52, is scheduled to return to Pomona Superior Court on Sept. 15, when he might accept a plea bargain from prosecutors, his attorney told a court commissioner.

Snyder was charged with 10 felonies in June following an investigation by the La Verne Police Department.

In addition to sodomy and oral copulation charges, the complaint filed by prosecutors includes counts for possession of child pornography and contacting a minor for a sexual offense.

Snyder's attorney, John Murray, declined to comment to a reporter after today's hearing.