187: May 2008 Archives

There was a story this morning on KABC about a group of parents banding together against "Urban Terrorism" in hopes of creating a reward fund and solving the murders of their children.

It got me thinking about the Sammantha Salas murder investigation in Monrovia and whether or not a possible reward offering will bring her killers to justice. Its something to think about -- thus the poll. Any thoughts?

It's nice to see that the Sheriff's homicide bureau and Mike Antonovich's office finally agree that a reward should be offered for information leading to the arrest and conviction of Sammantha Salas' killers.

Salas was killed Jan. 26 and by my math that makes five months of investigation without a resolution. Homicide detectives felt that incremental releases of information and ultimately the reward would keep publicity in the case from waning. Based on the story's position Friday in our most viewed stories list, it appears that they were right about sustaining publicity in the case.

The supes will still have to vote on the reward. It's should be on **Wednesday's agenda,** but hasn't been added yet, i'll keep monitoring that.

6:05 p.m. Friday **Antonovich's flack, Tony Bell, tells me that the Supes meet Wednesday instead of Tuesday next week in deference to Tuesday's primary election.**

As for the two being sought, the electronic files containing two composite drawings of men* sought in connection with the Salas case and another shooting are named ... 

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors will vote to offer a $10,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of suspects in the Jan. 26 shooting death of Sammantha Salas, Supervisor Mike Antonovich's spokesman Tony Bell told me this morning.

The reward will be voted on this coming Tuesday, Bell said.

Bell had been discussing the case with Lt. Dan Rosenberg of Sheriff's homicide,. it was Rosenbverg who made the decision to offer the reward. The hope is that nearly five months after Salas was shot to death in front of an apartment in an unincorporated portion of Monrovia, that someone will come forward with information in the case, Rosenberg said.

Here's the Star-news Web page, with details of the ongoing violence in Monrovia.

And here's the text from a press release put out by Judy Hammond the county's PIO:

LOS ANGELES COUNTY - Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich is offering a $10,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person(s) responsible for the death of Samantha Salas, a 16-year old youth.
 
On Saturday, January 26, 2008, Ms. Salas was fatally shot while walking with a friend, on the 2500 block of Peck Road near Longden Avenue in the unincorporated area of Monrovia, after being approached by two male suspects on foot. 
 
The two suspects are described as African-American in their 20's, wearing dark colored bandanas or hooded sweatshirts, and members of the Du Rock Crips gang.

The Los Angeles County Sherriff's Homicide Bureau is seeking information to assist in their investigation.  Supervisor Antonovich encourages witnesses of this crime or anyone with information to contact the Lt. Dan Rosenberg at the Homicide Bureau at (323) 890-5580.

 

I've heard so many different versions of this story today that my head is spinning. City News Service got bad information early from Sheriff's Headquarters Bureau and it spread like a virus through local news outlets.

As an example, KFI had to contend with a deputy at the SHB that was completely unfamiliar with the case. There's a whole story to be told about the decimation of SHB, but I'll save that for another day

In KFI's case the result was that Eric Leonard's story alluded to five men being named suspects in the case. In fact it's two men, one teen boy and two teen girls.

KNBC did a nice job with the wanted part of the story but left out the particulars about the other arrests. (They also used a lot of SGV Tribune copy to round out their tale -- thanks KNBC)

Here's AP's first story as it moved:

Date: 05/28/2008 11:45 PM

BC-CA--911 Killing/160
Eds: APNewsNow.
4 teens arrested, 5th sought for murder during 911 call

Text below is from the Sheriff's wanted poster:

On March 19, 2008 (Wednesday) at 1140 hours, Victim Michelle Hsu was shot and killed by intruders in her Covina Hills home.

The victim was on the telephone with a 911 operator when the suspects killed her to avoid capture and arrest.

After a lengthy investigation, detectives have identified Suspect Victor Manuel Maurtua as one of five suspects involved in the murder.

Suspect Maurtua is a known El Monte Flores gang member and was last known to frequent the Baldwin Park area.

*Update: City News Service has finally picked up on this (even though they had a copy of our story since Saturday). But what's being reported is wrong. The Sheriff's Information Bureau told CNS that there are no other suspects identified and no arrests have been made. CNS is working to correct their report.

Five persons have been charged in the March murder of Michelle Chien, aka Hsia Hong Hsu.

Here's an excerpt of the charge sheet from the DAs office:

BOOKING BAIL CUSTODY
DEFENDANT CII NO. DOB NO. RECOM'D R'TN DATE

SANTANA, CHRISTOPHER KEVIN  NO BAIL
MAURTUA, VICTOR MANUEL         NO BAIL
STRATIS, CHRISTOPHER               NO BAIL
ALEGRE, CHRISTINE                     NO BAIL
FERNANDEZ, MEGALI                   NO BAIL

 You can see the DAs indictment on the jump

All are looking at potential death sentences. Maurtua remains at large.

*All this information jibes with a story we published Saturday indicating the arrests had ocurred.

Prosecutors and defense attorneys agreed Tuesday to postpone a preliminary hearing for a woman accused of killing her husband and two children.

The move is one of several delays in the case since Man-ling Williams was arrested in connection with slaying of her husband Neal and children Ian and Devon. 

This small note comes from Jan WIlliams, mother of Neal grandmother of Ian and Devon. Jan attends each hearing in the case and reports to Crime Scene readers on the state of the case:

At a hearing today it was determined that they need to set another date in order to set a date for the preliminary.  Next check in hearing date is June 26.  Jan

My comment: Sounds like something from the court of the Queen of Hearts in Wonderland.

Former Pomona teacher Steven Petralia is set to be sentenced in Superior Court *tomorrow.

A wrong way crash on the Southbound 605 kills a driver.  Just minutes before the accident, Anissa Rivera, our "Mom's the word" blogger describes her family's close call.

APU students are causing a parking problem in the neighborhood.

The search for more Manson Family victims at Barker Ranch in Inyo was a big zip.

Sheriff's Department about to release more information in the March slaying of a Covina Hills woman who was on the phone with 9-1-1 when she was shot to death.

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From Reporter Dan Abendschein:

ROSEMEAD-- A Rosemead man was stabbed to death in his home early Monday morning.

Alfonso Castro, 51, was found by police after someone made a 911 call requesting help at his home, said Sheriff's Deputy Denise Fuchs.

The stabbing occurred around 12:30 a.m. at Castro's home in the 3200 block of Burton Avenue, said Fuchs. Castro was found with multiple stab wounds to the upper torso.

The home showed signs of forced entry, but Fuchs said police do not yet know if killing happened as part of a home-invasion robbery or if the killers had other motives.

A 20-year-old man was stabbed to death Saturday night behind a Covina apartment complex. Detectives have little information, no suspects or motives. Here's an excerpt:

COVINA - A local man was found stabbed to death late Saturday behind a Covina Boulevard apartment complex, authorities said. Frank Montes, 20, was pronounced dead at the scene, said Los Angeles County Department of Coroner Lt. Cheryl MacWillie.

Sheriff's deputies responded to a call reporting a fight about 9:30 p.m. in the 19500 block of Covina Boulevard in an unincorporated county area near Covina when they found Montes suffering from multiple stab wounds, said Los Angeles County sheriff's Deputy Aura Sierra.

Montes was pronounced dead at 9:45 p.m. in a parking lot, MacWillie said.

Sources close to the investigation told me earlier this week that three teens have been arrested in connection with the slaying of Michele Chien, a.k.a Hsiao Hsu, at a home in the Covina Hills on March 19 this year.

The motive for the slaying more and more appears to have been a burglary gone bad.

Law enforcement sources said the gunman is still being sought.

Here's most of the story that will appear in tomorrow's newspaper:

Authorities have arrested three teens in connection with the slaying of a Covina Hills woman shot to death while on the phone with a 9-1-1 operator, sources close to the investigation said Friday.
Sheriff's homicide Lt. Dan Rosenberg acknowledged that arrests have been made in the slaying, but declined to provide more specific information.
"We got some arrests," Rosenberg said. "But I have to talk to my detectives about what we put out beyond that. They want to put a flier out, and they are waiting to get everything lined up."
At least one of the teens is a resident of Azusa, the sources said. Other law enforcement sources said the teens were linked to the crime by a van that was reported leaving the scene.
The suspected gunman remains at large, the sources said.
Hsiao Hong Hsu, 45, also known as Michelle Chien, was shot to death March 19 while on the phone with a dispatcher to report a break in.
Hsu was shot as many as five times, authorities said. Two shots occurred while Hsu was on the phone.
The gunman shot her three more times while chasing her through her home in the 19700 block of Cameron Avenue in an unincorporated portion of Los Angeles County known as the Covina Hills, authorities said.
California law requires police to identify suspects booked into jail except when they are juveniles. The same provisions of public records law allow police to withhold the names of suspects who have been arrested and released without charges being filed.
Rosenberg would not say if either provision of the law applied to the suspects in the case.
A law enforcement source interviewed Thursday said Hsu's killing apparently stemmed from a burglary gone bad.
"Although (other scenarios) haven't been ruled out," the source said.

 A state appellate court panel today ordered a new
sentencing hearing for a young woman convicted along with her boyfriend of the
slayings of four members of her adoptive family in Pico Rivera.

The three-judge panel from the 2nd District Court of Appeal ruled that a lower court judge should have granted a continuance to allow Monica Diaz's attorney more time to prepare when she was re-sentenced in April 2007.

Here's a bit about the case from Mayhem.net

August 12, 2000 - Monica Diaz & Michael Naranjo - Sixteen-year-old Monica Diaz and her 17-year-old boyfriend Michael Naranjo pleaded not guilty to the stabbing attack of her adoptive father and three siblings in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Pico Rivera. Diaz and Naranjo have been charged with four counts of murder and one count of attempted murder. During the hearing the patricidial teen never looked at her wheelchair-bound mother, Sylvia Flores, who was injured in the rampage. Flores adopted Diaz, her niece, as a toddler after her parents died in a car crash.

About 24 hours before Wednesday's expected swearing in of a new police chief in Baldwin Park, another resident got murdered.

In a drive-by shooting to be exact. It occurred just blocks from the police department. Remarkable because it's the city's fifth homicide in 2008.

By comparison, at this time last year, Baldwin Park recorded just one slaying.

Welcome to Baldwin Park, "Hub City of the San Gabriel Valley."

A stiff ocean breeze blew in from the Pacific Wednesday. Purple blossoms blew off the Jacarandas and bunched up in the gutter. Dust kicked up and made the intersection of Ramona Boulevard and Merced Avenue seem like an apparition from the Wild West.

It must have sounded like something out of a Clint Eastwood movie about 6:15 p.m. Tuesday evening.

A car with two women and a man approached the intersection from the west and stopped at the light. Another car pulled alongside. Shots rang out. Gunfire struck the man in the stopped car at least once.

By 7 p.m. he was dead and laid out on a slab in a local hospital waiting for relatives to identify him. By all accounts there was no immediate provocation for the slaying.
"But who knows what happened before?" asked Los Angeles County sheriff's homicide Lt. Dan Rosenberg.

Even so, "There were indicators to suggest there were local gangs involved," Rosenberg said. "My guess is that when this all pans out that will be the case."

The upswing in homicides comes as Baldwin Park is in the midst of remaking itself.

Whole blighted neighborhoods that were once filled with seedy pay-by-the-hour motels and ramshackle motor home courts have been torn down.

The fences, prostitutes, pimps, drug dealers and parolees have moved on to greener pastures. Families have started taking over affordable housing options that line Ramona and Baldwin Park boulevards.

Recent news stories suggest despite resistance from longtime shop owners, at least one developer holds high hopes for plans to revitalize the city's core via eminent domain and redevelopment.

And yet, as if they lived in a town straight out of a spaghetti western, residents still cower in fear of the gangs that seemingly run the real city.

What usually happens in those old films is that the town's lone sheriff or marshall leaves town and is replaced by a "shoot first, ask questions later" kind of lawman.

The hired new muscle drives out the bad guys and everybody lives happily ever after.

As for the new muscle in Baldwin Park?

Her name is Lili Hadsell, but you can probably call her chief.

Hadsell, who began the year as a lieutenant, likely takes over as the county's third female municipal police chief. After many years working for the Baldwin Park Police Department, Hadsell told reporter Amanda Baumfeld she's ready for the challenges -- even as the town's homicide rate continues to soar and residents remain fearful.

"I am not new to the community," Hadsell said. "Our gang unit has helped with violence and the city is not what it was like 10 years ago. It is relatively safer now. We have a stronger police presence on the street."

In "High Plains Drifter," a bad guy tells new sheriff Clint Eastwood: "Life here's a little too quick ... Maybe you think you're fast enough to keep up with us, huh?"

To which Eastwood responds, "A lot faster than you'll ever live to be."

If only things were that simple in Baldwin Park.

Police say a 22-year-old Baldwin Park resident was shot and killed in an unprovoked attack near the intersection of Ramona and Merced *Tuesday night.

The dead man was riding with two women in a car when the attack occurred. The shooter apparently sped off.

No arrests have been made, detectives said they have no leads in the case.

Reporter Brian Day shot some dramatic photos while covering a homicide in La Puente Sunday. He shared the photos with me and I'm posting one here. I've altered it slightly to conceal the body of the victim.

The victim, Gabriel Martinez, 19, was left uncovered at the scene for much of the investigation.

Brian's story from Tuesday's paper is here.

Sometimes it seems every major news story has a connection to the San Gabriel Valley.

Take the search for bodies Tuesday at a run-down ranch in a desolate corner of Death Valley.

The ranch, known as the Baker Ranch, was the last known hideout of Charles Manson and members of the Manson Family before their capture in October 1969. Some speculate that undiscovered victims of the Manson Family killers remain buried on the ranch after all these years.

A few months ago cadaver dogs searching the grounds had two significant hits, according to their handlers. The search scheduled for Tuesday will be a fairly scientific endeavor according to the Los Angeles Times:

PANAMINT SPRINGS -- Spooky rumors have persisted for decades that there may be clandestine graves at a secluded ranch used as a hideout by the Charles Manson clan after a 1969 killing spree.

On Tuesday, Inyo County sheriff's investigators and scientists packing portable ground-penetrating radar, magnetometers and shovels will convoy to the Barker Ranch on a mission to confirm or put to rest such speculation.

So what's the local connection?

Leslie Van Houten. In the span of a couple years Van Houten went from Monrovia High School's Homecoming Queen -- to convicted murderer on Death Row.

Here's some of what the Famous Trials Web site says about Van Houten:

Although described as being the least committed to Manson of the three female defendants, Van Houten nonetheless agreed to participate in the murderous raid on the LaBianca home on August 10, 1969.  She helped hold down Rosemary LaBianca while Tex Watson stabbed her to death.  In a November 1969 interview with police, Van Houten admitted to knowledge of the Tate-LaBianca murders, but denied participation. 

Van Houten's first attorney, Donald Barnett, was dismissed after crossing Manson.  Her second lawyer, Marvin Part, wanted to show that Van Houten was "insane in a way that is almost science fiction."  Part saw her crime as influenced by LSD and Charles Manson,  but Van Houten saw it differently:  "I was influenced by the war in Viet Nam and TV."  At Manson's urging, Van Houten fired Part and yet another attorney was appointed.  When Van Houten's third attorney, Ronald Hughes, also began pursuing a strategy that ran counter to that favored by Manson (Manson opposed any strategy that suggested the other defendants acted under his influence), the Family had him killed.  No one has ever been charged with his murder.

Hughes is not among the potential victims buried at Barker Ranch. His body turned up in Sespe Hot Springs in Ventura County.

So who might be buried at the Barker Ranch?

Indians? Gold miners? Victims?

As for Van Houten, here's some links of interest:

Classmates from Monrovia High School.

Van Houten's 2007 parole hearing

Victim's letter to parole board

Jan WIlliams recalls her son Neal in an email I received this morning.

Neal, 27, and Jan's grandsons Ian and Devon were slain last August at their apartment in Rowland Heights. Neal's wife Manling has been charged in the killings and has yet to face a preliminary hearing in the case. Neal was apparently stabbed to death. The children were suffocated.

Here's Jan's letter:

May 19, 2008 - Neal's 28th birthday.  More than any other holiday or anniversary that I have faced in the last nine months, this is the one that is the most difficult.  This is the day my only son was born.  He should be here to eat his grandmother's key lime pie, the one she only makes for him.  It isn't fair.  It isn't right.  He had so many things to look forward to and he didn't deserve to die.  How hard it is as a parent to think of your child bleeding out his life in fear and pain.  There are times when I think that my heart is too wounded to beat even one beat more.

I have spoken and written about the little boys, but until now I have been unable to write about Neal.  That isn't because I loved my grandchildren more than I loved my son.  I think it is because the hurt is too close.  And because so many parts of our personalities were similar, holding a magnifying glass up to examine Neal means that I must examine myself as well.  To help you see Neal  I must expose a bit of me.  That isn't easy or comfortable, so let me take a couple of deep breaths.

Neal and I are both peacemakers.  We hate to see anyone angry, in pain or humiliated.  We want to fix it.  I've seen Neal get up and leave the room when he could tell that a character in a television show was about to be embarrassed.   His eyes teared up when the barracuda ate the clown fish's eggs in Finding Nemo, and he was bothered when the T-Rex ate the dog in Jurassic Park II.  He could always see the other side in almost every argument.  It didn't necessarily make him change his mind, because he could be very stubborn about his own conclusions, but he could understand and empathize.  I am the same way myself.  Perhaps that is why we could discuss so many issues - even volatile ones.  We both knew that it was safe to air our opinions, but that we shouldn't expect any sudden about face, no matter how eloquent our arguments.

We are voracious readers who can lose all sense of time with a book in our hands.  It is known to be  dangerous to let us loose in a book store, especially if it also sells coffee.  We are interested in many of the same things - history and archaeology, space travel and ecology, philosophy and volcanoes.  We are fans of Monty Python and Shakespeare, Star Wars and Gilbert and Sullivan.  We like to cook but detest washing dishes.  We procrastinate.  We like to walk in the rain.  We sing in the car.  Devon once asked me in confusion how I knew all of his daddy's songs.  I can't begin to tell you how it felt to see my son sing my songs and play my games and tell my stories with his own children.  It was almost like being handed a glimpse of immortality, real and down to earth.

Neal and I are good with animals and children.  We can make friends with mean old alley cats and can put babies to sleep.  When Neal was in middle school, he was a volunteer aide at a daycare center.  I would come to pick him up and see him walking calmly across a play yard with four-year-olds stuck like glue to every limb.  The last time I went to the park with Neal and the boys, he started in pushing the merry-go-round, and kept right on pushing, even when his own children had lost interest and gone on with me to other amusements.  As long as there was a single child to say "Again!" he was there to push, even red faced and out of breath.  He was a great father who treated every child he met as though it was one of his own boys.

Neal liked to tease, with a roguish twinkle in his eyes, and he had a wonderful, infectious laugh. He was a trustworthy and loyal friend, the kind who would show up with a truck on moving day. He was an amazing strategist, who thought many moves ahead, and when he played games he usually won.  He also had the infinite patience to teach hyperactive little boys how to play chess or baseball or video games or (Devon's favorite) the German card game Bohnanza.  He answered endless questions, and laughed with good humor at whatever jokes were popular in the first grade, even the ones he had heard many times before.

Neal didn't have a lot of ambition for material things.  He was raised by a single parent from the time he was two, and we never had a lot of money.  It didn't matter.  We were rich in many other things, and I know he felt the same about his own adult life.  We often talked about it.  Devon and Ian were his treasure, and he had no need of fancy cars or a big house.  I am proud of that.  Neal was a man of heart and integrity, and that means more to me than if he had become the world's youngest multimillionaire.  He would often quote the character  Merlin from the movie Excaliber , saying, "When a man lies he murders part of the world."  He believed that and made it his personal code of honor.  How many people even have a code of honor in this busy and competitive world? .  He wasn't a perfect man.  He was a good man.  That was Neal - a genuinely good man.

This from NBC in San Diego:

SAN DIEGO -- Mexican police found the bodies Sunday evening of four American citizens who had been shot to death near their car, according to a Mexican newspaper.

The bodies three men and a woman, all shot to death execution-style, were discovered at about 6 p.m. Sunday in a ravine near Rosarito Beach, the newspaper Frontera reported on its Web site. Two African-American men were found in a green Cadillac with California license plates, the paper reported. Police found the body of a third African-American man in a group of trees near the car.

Officials said the white woman was about 50 yards from the car. She, like the other victims, had been shot in the head, Frontera reported.

 

The PCC Courier got a copy of the coroner's report on Liya "Jessie" Lu.

Lu, a student at PCC, went missing last summer. Her body was later discovered stuffed in a trashcan in an Arcadia b ackyard.

Isaac Campbell, Liu's boyfriend was arrested on suspicion of killing Liu after he was captured in Minnesota, following his flight from California.

Here's an excerpt of the Courier story by reporter Franco Sui Yuan: (nice job Franco!)

The cause of death of former PCC student Liya 'Jessie' Lu remains a mystery after the Coroner's medical examiners released their report on Tuesday.

Lu's body was found in a trashcan covered with approximately 10 gallons of kitty litter on Sept. 15, almost a month after her disappearance.

"The elaborate preparation to dispose of the cadaver is a strong indication of the intent to dispose of evidence that could point out the cause and manner of death," said medical examiners in the Coroner's autopsy report. "Considering all these circumstances the manner of death is homicidal."

Eventually, Lu's advanced-decomposing body stopped any type of conclusions in regards of her cause of death. "The cause of death in this case remains undetermined after autopsy and toxicological examinations," said the report.

The Coroner's report reveals that Lu's body was suffering greenish discoloration on the skin, disintegration on the internal and external organs, and brain liquification - the process in which a solid or a gas becomes liquid.

The report also discloses that Lu's body had no external or internal evidence of injuries, which increased the ambiguity on her slaying.

One-time PCC nursing program student Isaac Campbell is charged with murder in the death of his ex-girlfriend Lu.

Melissa Pamer reports that the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Homicide Bureau has released the sketches of two men wanted in connection with a Jan. 14 drive-by shooting in Monrovia in which two men might have been slightly injured.

Here's the sketches at left.

I imagine folks in Monrovia have some questions for officials about certain elements of the story.

Here are my questions and observations:

1. Why is homicide releasing sketches of figures wanted in what is likely to be charged as an assault at best? It's my understanding that homicide detectives only investigate actual homicides.

2. When it comes to the Sammantha Salas slaying, why does homicide Lt. Dan Rosenberg say he's not ready ask for a reward from Supervisor Mike Antonovich's office? Antonovich's flack Tony Bell has said repeatedly that he's talked to detectives about that. Can we infer that these two might be wanted in the Salas case as well? What's the story here?

3. Officials that Pamer talked to said crime tips have decreased as media attention has waned in Monrovia.  It almost sounds as if the media is being blamed for a lack of interest in the community. Truth be told, Monrovia seems to have several pretty active community forums among them FCBLOG, City Hall, North Primrose and Frazgo on MetBlogs. Additionally we've had a section of our Web site exclusively devoted to the shootings.

4. Early on in the investigation, authorities blamed the rising tensions in the community on recently released parolees. Do these composite drawings match the mug shots of actual parolees reportedly released into the community?

There's a possibility that victims of the Manson Family may still be buried in near a desert hideout in Inyo County.

This from Radar:

The search for remains at the Barker Ranch in Death Valley begins Next Tuesday when a crew of scientists, laser technicians, cadaver dogs, soil testers, and search team from Inyo County Sheriff's Office will comb the cult's old clubhouse grounds. Since the 1969 murders, rumors and speculation have been rampant as to whether additional bodies had been disposed of at Barker Ranch, where Manson was arrested, found hiding under a kitchen sink in fetal crouch. So, why now after all these years? "The sheriff just really wants to put this to rest," sheriff spokesperson Carma Roper tells Radar. "He wants conclusive answers."

Google map below shows the location of the ranch.

Less than a week after the slaying of 90-year-old Evelyn Mosley at her home on Lincoln Avenue in Altadena, the Board of Supervisors is ready to authorize a reward.

Mosley was found lying in a pool of blood inside her home by firefighters who had responded to reports of smoke. The initial investigation in the case labeled Mosley's death as suspicious.

Later it was determined that she had been slain, and for a few brief hours Friday, the Sheriff's Department thought Mosley's housekeeper might be responsible. They booked the unidentified woman, but cut her loose several hours later, saying she had been "exonerated."

So, from the reward offering we can assume detectives are back at square one with nothing to go on.

I'm interested, though, in the swiftness of the reward offering. It's not clear what is motivating the supervisors, since I couldn't get Michael Antonovich's flack Tony Bell on the phone Monday.

Perhaps this is a good sign for those hoping the supes will also offer a reward in the Sammantha Salas slaying.

You'll remember Salas, 16, was shot to death in a hail of automatic gunfire outside her father's apartment in unincorporated Monrovia in late January. No one has been caught in the case.

Last time I talked to Bell, he blamed the lack of a reward on the detectives investigating Salas' death.

"They know what they are doing," he scolded me. "Who are you to say what is the right investigative technique?"

Since then, I was able to ask Supervisor Gloria Molina about the possibility of offering a reward in the Salas case.

She said she would look into it and hoped Salas' family would contact her office. I haven't heard back.

What's the disparity between the Salas and Mosley cases?

As one of my colleagues asked Monday, "Wouldn't you think that detectives and the supes want to do something about the killing of a 16-year-old who had her whole life in front of her?"

Not yet, apparently.

X X X

Watching television news and reading the paper over the weekend, I suddenly got the feeling that we are all living in Grand Theft Auto IV.

As the title implies, players go around stealing cars. Sticking to the story line can lead to shootouts with cops and drug dealers and police pursuits.

Taking a look at headlines of the past week, all of the violent stuff reads like it came straight from the video game.

Example: In Azusa, Jose Luis Medina, 33, was shot and killed in a street robbery that occurred about 2a.m. Saturday in the 600 block of West Gladstone Street.

Medina was walking with a friend east on Gladstone when a car approached and Medina was shot and killed.

The car and its occupant fled. Like many of the scenarios in GTA, there were no arrests.

Across the county in Inglewood Sunday morning, a couple of officers, believing they were under fire, opened up on a passing car, killing a 19-year-old and injuring the driver. Again there have been no arrests.

In South El Monte on Sunday night, four men apparently affiliated with a local gang were targeted by a gunman for unknown reasons. All four were wounded and taken to an undisclosed hospital. There were no arrests.

Taking such a clinical approach to reading and watching the news removes the fact that in each of these stories, real three-dimensional people were involved.

They had real families, real friends and real hopes and dreams. And no restarts.

Take a look at the jump for an update.... 

The Supes are offering a $10,000 reward for information on the murder of Evelyn Mosley, according to a press release put out this afternoon.

Mosley, 90,  was killed last Thursday after a brief struggle in her home in the 3200 block of Lincoln Avenue in Altadena.

Her body was discovered by fire fighters responding to a call at the home.

Note from Star-news city editor Hector Gonzalez:

Property records showed that a Sandy Mosley Hamilton lived at the address.

Further details as they happen

Fred Ortega spent some time in Altadena yesterday hoping to put together some of the puzzle surrounding the death of 90-year-old woman: Associated Press filed this. Here's a piece of Fred's story:

ALTADENA - Firefighters doused a blaze at an Altadena home Thursday - and uncovered a murder mystery.

Homicide detectives from the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department are now investigating after firefighters discovered the body of a 90-year-old woman inside the burned Lincoln Avenue home early Thursday.

Detectives said they found blood and other signs of a struggle inside the home in the 3200 block of North Lincoln.

"Right now we have no details about whether she was killed by fire or smoke," said Los Angeles County Fire Department Inspector Ron Haralson.

However, he said the woman's body showed signs of trauma.

And later in the day Thursday, detectives confirmed the woman's death was a homicide.

Chuck Hubbs, who was the night city editor at the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner when I was a copy boy there, always had me running weekend casualty counts.

Every Friday and Saturday, just when I'd be getting ready to leave, he would exhort in his unmistakably deep voice. "Check those wires kid. See how many bodies have piled up."

I'd rip pieces of printer paper from machines that spit out copy from the Metro Wire and City News services and run them back to Chuck so that he could compile a daily body count for an inside page.

Some weekends were slow with one or two slayings. Others seemed quite busy; with eight, 10, even 15 killings.

I wonder how many of those even got solved?

This past weekend undoubtedly would have qualified as a slow one. And yet, it could have been quite deadly.

Young men were injured in shootings in Whittier and Pico Rivera.

A few other teens might have taken bullets in Baldwin Park. But somehow they were luckier than Jose Perez, 16. The Baldwin Park High student was shot to death talking to a friend outside a home in the 5000 block of Maine Avenue Saturday night.

By my count, Perez is the second student from that high school to succumb to gun violence this school year. That seems awfully high.

In November, Baldwin Park High student Luis Estrada, 14, and his father Pedro were gunned down by four attackers in front of their home in the 4000 block of Downing Avenue.

Three teens, all former Baldwin Park students, have been arrested in the case, officials said. A fourth remains at large. Gang rivalry apparently motivated the incident.

As they did in the Estrada case, school administrators promised Monday to provide grief counseling to anyone who needed it at Baldwin Park High School.

"The school will of course do something for the students who need the services," said Lynne Kennedy, associate superintendent for student achievement in the Baldwin Park district.
Although there is absolutely no indication that Perez had gang ties, it's pretty clear his attackers used gang tactics. Witnesses said the men drove slowly north on Maine Avenue. They flipped a U-turn, drove up to Perez and opened fire.

Because Perez had only just enrolled at Baldwin Park, and was killed on a Saturday night far away from campus, Kennedy claimed the slaying reflects more on the community at large than on the high school.

"You have to expect these things," she said. "There's crime in the city and there's going to be fall over to students who attend the school."

Kennedy also claimed that there is no gang problem at Baldwin Park High School, even as she pointed to the city's tenacious problem with three notorious groups.

This morning (as I do most mornings) I know I'll drive along Puente Avenue past Baldwin Park High on my way to work.

I'll watch the kids pass and wonder who is going to college? Who is going to Iraq? Or Afghanistan? Who is going to get married, settle down in town and raise another generation of students?

I'll have another question on my mind this morning though: Who will be the next name in my casualty count?

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From Brian Day's story:

BALDWIN PARK -- A 16-year-old boy was shot and killed in a drive-by shooting Saturday, authorities said.

Jose Perez of Baldwin Park was pronounced dead at the scene of the attack, which was reported about 9:15 p.m. in the 5000 block of Maine Avenue, said Los Angeles County sheriff's Deputy Rick Pedroza.

Perez's body was found across the street from a house party in the residential neighborhood, but police don't believe the party and the shooting were related.

A description of the shooter or the shooter's vehicle was not available.

Carlos Sanchez, 28, a life-long area resident, said he was standing with Perez minutes before the shooting occurred.

Sanchez said he had just gone over to the party across the street to get some food when people started shouting about a shooting.