Monthly Archives: March 2009

“Gifts for Guns” trade planned in Rowland Heights

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ROWLAND HEIGHTS — Sheriff’s officials will be exchanging gift cards for guns next month in an effort to make local neighborhoods safer, authorities said.
The “Gifts for Guns” exchange will take place April 3 from 2 p.m. to 8 p.m. and April 4 from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. at a parking lot at 19725 Colima Road, near Fairway Drive, sheriff’s officials said in a written statement.
Those who bring guns, unloaded and in their trunks, will receive their choice of gift cards from a variety of local retailers and grocery stores while supplies last, officials said.

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Gift cards worth $100 will be given for most handguns, rifles and shotguns, while $200 cards will be exchanged for assault weapons, officials added.
No questions will be asked, and participants will remain anonymous.
For more information, contact the sheriff’s Walnut-Diamond Bar Station at (909) 595-2264.

* Photo: A Gifts for Guns exchange in Compton in December of 2008, in which a record number of guns were collected. (Courtesy of the Associated Press)

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Body of missing toddler found

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The Associated Press reports:

LANCASTER — Authorities on Thursday found the body of a toddler believed to be an
18-month-old girl whose mother reported being knocked out by someone in a high desert city and waking up later to discover the child missing.
The case was turned over to homicide detectives, said Los Angeles County sheriff’s Lt. Pat Nelson.
The 20-year-old mother, whose name was not released, was not in custody and was cooperating, he said.
“At this point I would not term her a suspect. That may change as circumstances develop,” Nelson said.
The mother told authorities she last saw her daughter, Emma Leigh Barker, at 5 p.m. Wednesday while putting her into a car seat at Lancaster City Park, Nelson said.
The mother said she was knocked unconscious by someone she didn’t see. She told investigators she woke up at 10:30 p.m. Wednesday in her car in a parking lot in neighboring Palmdale.
and her daughter was missing, and reported it to sheriff’s deputies 30 minutes to an hour later, said Deputy Aura Sierra.
The mother was partially clad and suffering from some head injury when she was interviewed, Nelson said.
Within a few hours several inconsistencies developed, he said.
“Further investigation led unfortunately to the discovery of the body of the toddler in the
Mission Hills area here,” he said.
The body was located at 11 a.m. Thursday in an unspecified area described as accessible by roads.
Mission Hills is in the San Fernando Valley along Interstate 5.
While the body had yet to be positively identified, Nelson said investigators were “fairly
confident” it was Emma.

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Suspect in Gas Co. employee slayings shoots self

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From the Associated Press:

ANAHEIM– A suspect in two separate shooting deaths of gas company workers shot himself in the head while sitting in his SUV outside a police station, authorities
said Thursday.
A patrol officer saw that the driver’s side window was blown out and found Phong Thuc Tran with serious head wounds but still moving, police Sgt. Rick Martinez said.
Tran, 36, of Orange County, had worked with both victims at Southern California Gas Co.’s Anaheim office as a field technician but resigned in 2007 after five years.
“He tried to commit suicide,” police Sgt. Tim Schmidt said. “He’s not dead but he’s not expected to live.”
After an armored vehicle boxed in the sport utility vehicle, Tran was shot with beanbag rounds,
pulled from the car and taken to a hospital in critical condition, Martinez said. Officers had
identified his vehicle from an arrest warrant issued Wednesday.
Three handguns found in the vehicle were being compared with evidence from the locations where the two workers were shot, Schmidt said. Authorities were continuing to investigate the motive for the shootings.
Tran is a suspect in two deaths: Charles Santisteban, 43, a supervisor at Southern California Gas Co., who was gunned down in his driveway Wednesday in Pomona, and Hung
Duy Dao, 37, of Westminster, who was found dead Tuesday night in the driver’s seat of his car outside the utility’s Anaheim office where he worked as a field technician for about six years.
Santisteban had worked at the Anaheim plant but left about six months ago to take a job at the utility’s Pasadena office, Schmidt said.
The two victims knew each other and had previously worked together, Schmidt said.
Some employees at the Anaheim office chose to work in other locations this week “out of concern for their own safety,” said Denise King, a spokeswoman for the utility. She did not believe Tran was stalking those employees.
The company was not releasing any additional details on the victims or the suspect, King
said.
“We’re all shocked,” King said. “We’re relieved the suspect is no longer at large.”
Southern California Gas Co., a subsidiary of Sempra Energy, provides natural gas to 20 million consumers in a 20,000-square-mile territory. It describes itself as the nation’s largest natural gas distribution utility.

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Four jailed in alleged robbery spree

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WALNUT — Two men and two teenage girls were arrested Tuesday after an alleged robbery spree with the help of one of the alleged victims and some good Samaritans, authorities said.
Anthony Peter Romero, 20, of La Puente, Richard Enrique Cardenas, 18, of Valinda, a 15-year-old El Monte girl and a 16-year-old El Monte girl were booked on suspicion of a total of 10 robberies and one grand theft person, Los Angeles County sheriff’s Detective Joe Wright said.
At least one of the suspects is also suspected in two other recent robberies at Mt. San San Antonio College, Lt. Joe Maxey said.
Wright said three of the four suspects were arrested in a vehicle near the scene of the alleged crimes.
“(He) was seen half a block west of there by one of the victims, chased down, sprayed with pepper spray and detained,” he said.
Some athletic young men assisted in detaining the suspect but did not stay around to give their information, he added.
“When we got there, they had him detained,” Wright said. His gun was on he ground. There were bullets in his pockets.”
Tuesday’s alleged robbery spree began shortly before 5 p.m. when Cardenas reportedly robbed three couples at gunpoint in Creekside Park as the other three suspects allegedly waited in the vehicle.
After that, the suspects reportedly headed to a shopping center at the corner of Amar Road and Grand Avenue, where they continued their spree, the detective said.
The suspects allegedly snatched a camera from a man sitting at a Burger King restaurant, Wright said, then robbed a customer in front of a nearby Starbucks and three people in a nearby church parking lot at gunpoint.
After Cardenas was chased down, property belonging to all of the victims in Tuesday’s robberies were found in his possession, the detective said.
Romero, who allegedly acted as the driver in Tuesday’s robbery spree and stole the camera, was later identified as the robber in two robberies in the parking lot of Mt. San Antonio College last week, Wright said.
None of the alleged victims were injured, he said.
According to court records, Cardenas and Romero were being held in lieu of $100,000 bail each. They were due to be arraigned Thursday at Pomona Superior Court, however court officials said Thursday afternoon the men had not yet appeared.
*Cardenas pictured top, Romero pictured bottom. Photos courtesy of Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.

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Centinel of Foothill Cities revealed?

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Virginia Hoge thinks that former Star News staffer K-Todd might have been behind the once mighty (now very moribund) Foothill Cities Blog:
 

Since Centinel has been revealed to be Kenneth Todd Ruiz, serious
questions need to be asked about the Star New’s role in all this. The
Pasadena Weekly is also completely implicated by giving Aaron Proctor a
column. Both publications have foisted right-wing extremism onto our
city. Yes, it was already there, but this gave it a “booster” shot, and
a whole new crowd.

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Baldwin Park a.m. gang sweep nets 12 arrests

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Jennifer McLain and Raul Roa took a ride with Baldwin Park police officers during an early morning raid of suspected gang members and taggers. Among the crews hit were North Side and East Side Bolen as well as KHA and MIK. Their criminal backgrounds included felony vandalism, grand theft and assault with a deadly weapon.

Apparently some of the gang members are involved in weird rituals. There were Oreo cookies sacrificed to statues of the Grim Reaper and tales of Brujo blessings that included cutting the head off a rooster to bless a cocaine stash:

Here’s a bit of Jennifer’s story:

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BALDWIN PARK – Twelve people were arrested
Thursday morning in sweep targeting the homes of 32 Baldwin Park area
parolees, most of whom were juveniles, and some who had ties to local
gangs.

Neither the fog nor the sun had risen yet as officers pounded the door of a 17-year-old parolee.

Around 5:45 a.m., five men shuffled out of the one-bedroom
apartment next to the on-ramp of the 10 Freeway as Baldwin Park Police
hunted for the teenager who was on probation for tagging and resisting
arrest.

They sat, some shirtless, others sockless, and all shivering,
on crates and the cold cement as police searched the house for the
teen.

After a 15 minute search, cops found him hidden in the closet
under a pile of clothes. Police also found two bongs, baggies of
marijuana, a drug scale, two cans of empty spray bottles and a tagged
bottle of Miller High Life.

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Goodfellas Henry Hill wanted in San Berdoo

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SAN BERNARDINO – A mobster-turned-FBI informant whose life inspired the movie “Goodfellas” is wanted for failing to appear in court on tickets alleging he was drunk in public in San Bernardino.

Henry Hill, once linked to a $5.8 million airport heist, is facing two, $25,000 arrest warrants.

Hill, 65, said he was not aware he needed to be present in court Wednesday. He also said he told court clerks Monday that he wanted a new hearing date because he was having hernia surgery.

The “Goodfellas” movie ends with Hill, played by Ray Liotta, entering federal witness protection after implicating fellow mobsters in murders and the 1978 heist of $5.8 million in cash from a Lufthansa Airlines vault in New York.

Drug arrests led to Hill being removed from the federal program in the early 1990s.

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Jury recommends death for arsonist

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A jury has recommended the death penalty for Raymond Oyler, the man convicted of intentionally lighting several SoCal wildfires in 2006, including the deadly Esparanza Fire in October, which claimed the lives of five firefighters.

The Associated Press reports:

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RIVERSIDE — A jury recommended the death penalty Wednesday for a
man convicted of murdering five federal firefighters who were overrun by one of several wildfires he ignited in Southern California in 2006.
Jurors took less than a day to decide that Raymond Lee Oyler deserved to die.
Prosecutors cited the horrific pain the fire crew suffered and the terror the auto mechanic’s
fires caused in rural areas of Riverside County.
Outside court, Maria Loutzenhiser, the wife of slain fire Capt. Mark Loutzenhiser, thanked jurors and prosecutors “for putting an end to everybody’s misery and giving everybody peace of mind.”
“I’m grateful they put Oyler in jail and that he’s there and he can’t do this anymore,” she
said.
Oyler, 38, was convicted of five counts of first-degree murder, 20 counts of arson and 17 counts of using an incendiary device.
Jurors began penalty phase deliberations Tuesday afternoon.
The jury foreman, who declined to give his name, said the two-month trial was an emotional ordeal but the evidence showed Oyler’s guilt and helped persuade the panel he should get the death penalty.
“There were more tears today than any other day,” he said. “It’s not an easy decision to
make.”
The foreman choked back tears as he recalled some of the testimony from family members. He hugged several of them outside court.
At sentencing, set for April 3, Judge W. Charles Morgan still could give Oyler the punishment the defense had urged jurors to choose: life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Oyler’s daughter echoed his lawyers’ claim that her father never intended to kill anyone.
“That was not in his mind. My dad is not this monster they paint him to be,” 21-year-old Heather Oyler said outside the courtroom.
Prosecutor Michael Hestrin told jurors in closing arguments of the trial’s penalty phase that
Oyler was not a casual arsonist but instead sought the power to end people’s lives.
Oyler was convicted of setting numerous fires in rural areas of Riverside County in 2006.
The fatal blaze, known as the Esperanza Fire, roared to life that October as fierce Santa Ana
winds swept through valleys and mountains about 90 miles east of Los Angeles.
The crew of San Bernardino National Forest Engine 57 was overwhelmed after deploying
to protect an unoccupied house perched at the top of a steep drainage in the San Jacinto
Mountains.
Three firefighters died there and a fourth died soon after at a hospital. The fifth died five
days later, the same day Oyler was arrested.
Prosecutors showed jurors graphic photos of the firefighters: Jason McKay, 27; Jess McLean, 27; Daniel Hoover-Najera, 20; Pablo Cerda, 23, and Loutzenhiser, 43.
Judge Morgan previously ruled Oyler mentally competent after an evaluation by a
psychologist.

*Photo courtesy of the Associated Press

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