West Covina police jail alleged car thieves

WEST COVINA — Police arrested a man and woman Sunday suspected of stealing a car, police said.
Gustavo Torres, 25, and Savhannah Solorzano, 21, were booked on suspicion of auto theft, West Covina police Lt. Marty Sevilla said. There cities of residency were not immediately clear.
An officer as patrolling about 8 a.m. near the Wayside Motel, 1431 W. Garvey Ave. North, when he checked the license plate of a parked 1995 Honda Accord in the parking lot and notices it had been reported stolen, the lieutenant said.
Officers watched the car until Torres and Solorzano got into it and drove off before pulling them over and arresting them without incident, Sevilla said.
According to sheriff’s booking records, both suspects were being held in lieu of $25,000 bail and are due for arraignment Tuesday in West Covina Superior Court.

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No suspect found after 5-hour standoff

MONROVIA — A sheriff’s SWAT team used flash bang and tear gas grenades to force their way into a home where an armed was was believed to be barricaded for five hours Sunday, but found the home empty, authorities said.
The incident began about 11:30 a.m. at a house in the 2000 block of Goodall Avenue in an unincorporated county area near Monrovia when someone reported a son and mother were involved in an argument, Los Angeles County sheriff’s Sgt. Lynette O’Brien said.
When deputies arrived, the son’s mother and step-father told deputies that the son was armed and they last saw him inside the home, Cmdr. James Lopez said.
“They saw the son with a handgun,” he said. “He actually pointed the gun at his step-dad.”
The mother and step-father were not injured, officials said.
Deputies also learned that the son, who was initially described only as a 20-year-old Latino man pending further investigation, had outstanding felony warrants related to burglary and narcotics charges, Lopez said. He did not appear to have a history of violence.
Authorities were also looking into the possibility the suspects has gang ties.
Three-dozen people were evacuated from nine homes near the incident, Sgt. Jeff Walker said. The Red Cross set up a place for them to wait at nearby Pamela Park if they wished.
For about five hours, crisis negotiators tried to contact the house by telephone and orders to surrender were broadcasted through loudspeakers as deputies worked to get a search warrant for the home signed by a judge.
At about 4:30 p.m., sheriff’s SWAT deputies through a flash bank grenade and several tear gas grenades into the home before forcing their way in, Sgt. Jim Dexter said.
“(Deputies) went in with gas,” he said. “They searched the location and the suspect is gone.”
Authorities believe he slipped away before deputies were able to fully surround the home, Dexter added.
Lopez said officials will continue to seek the son on suspicion of brandishing a gun at his step-father, as well as the outstanding warrants, authorities said.
Deputies recovered a weapon from the home, Walker said, though declined to say what type..
Officials said the mother and step-father were being housed by the Red Cross temporarily due to the tear gas inside the home. Firefighters were summoned to ventilate the house.

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Man suspected of DUI in fatal El Monte crash

EL MONTE — A woman was killed and a suspected drunken driver was jailed early Sunday following a crash on the 10 Freeway in El Monte, authorities said.
The dead woman’s name was not released pending notification of her family, coroner’s officials said.
Officials initially described her as a 41-year-old Ontario woman.
Thomas E. Vanauken, 43, of Anaheim was booked on suspicion of gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated, drunken driving causing death and drunken driving in connection with the 2:40 a.m. crash, California Highway Patrol Sgt. Kurt Stormes said in a written statement.
“(Vanauken) was driving his 2009 Acura MDX SUV on the I-10 eastbound east of Santa Anita Avenue, in the NO. 1 lane at a speed (witnesses) indicated to be over 120 mph,” Stormes said.
The Ontario woman was driving a 1995 Mitsubishi with two passengers ahead of the Acura and braked for slowing traffic just before the crash, he said.
“Due to (Vanauken’s) intoxication and his unsafe speed, his vehicle rear-ended the Mitsubishi,” according to the statement.
Officials rushed the woman driving the Mitsubishi to the hospital, where she died shortly after 3 a.m., Los Angeles County Department of Coroner Capt. John Kades said.
A 32-year-old Pomona woman who was riding in the Mitsubishi suffered moderate injuries in the crash, Stormes said, and a 35-year-old Upland woman who was also a passenger was not injured.
Vanauken suffered minor injuries, he added.
According to sheriff’s booking records, Vanauken was being held in lieu of $200,000 bail and is due for arraignment in Pomona Superior Court Tuesday.

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Armed men rob check cashing business in La Puente

LA PUENTE — Sheriff’s officials asked the public’s help Saturday in finding two gunmen who robbed a La Puente check cashing business.
The crime occurred about 10:20 p.m. Friday at Check Into Cash, at Amar Road and Puente Avenue, Los Angeles County sheriff’s Lt. Steven Katz said.
The robbers were both carrying handguns when they entered the store and demanded cash from an employee, the lieutenant said.
They were last seen fleeing the area on foot with an undisclosed amount of stolen money, he added.
Both robbers were described as Latino men in their early 20s, about 5 feet 7 inches tall, of thin build, with brown eyes, Katz said. They wore blue jeans and had dark-colored bandanas over their faces.
One of the robbers wore a white hooded sweat shirt, while the other wore a brown hooded sweat shirt and black gloves, officials said.
Anyone with information is asked to call the sheriff’s Industry Station.

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Rowland Heights man, La Puente woman found shot to death in Los Angeles

EL SERENO — Rowland Heights man and a La Puente woman were fatally shot inside a vehicle in the El Sereno area of Los Angeles Saturday.
Michael Talamantes Jr., 32, and Priscilla Jimenez, 31, died at the scene of the shooting, which occurred just before 5 a.m. on Warwick Avenue near Martin Street, Los Angeles County Department of Coroner Investigator Jerry McKibben said.
Los Angeles police released few details about the apparently gang-related attack Saturday afternoon.
Officers responded to a report of “shots fired” when they found the victims suffering from “numerous gunshot wounds,” LAPD spokeswoman Norma Eisenman said.
No suspect description was available, she said.

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Arcadia to probe possible link between robberies there and in Monterey Park

From reporter Thomas Himes:

Arcadia police said Friday they will investigate a possible link between the Monterey Park robbery and two robberies that occurred in that city in November, Arcadia police Sgt. Tom Le Veque said.

“There are some similarities in suspect descriptions and the circumstances surrounding the crime,” Le Veque said. “But it’s way too early to say anything is related.” recovered a Porsche in Alhambra that was stolen during a home invasion robbery in Monterey Park, officials said Friday.

Six people were bound with zip ties and one man was pistol-whipped during the robbery that occurred at 3:15 a.m. Thursday in the 500 block of Whitney Place.

Tipsters alerted police after they recognized the Porsche’s description from a news report, Monterey Park police Sgt. Frank Duke said.

“They called and said they saw this Porsche in the news,” Duke said.

The Porsche was located in good condition near West Garvey and Montezuma avenues in Alhambra about 7 p.m., Duke said.

“We did recover some evidence out of the Porsche,” Duke said. “We will process it and hopefully get some traceable evidence,” Duke said.

Police brought a man in for questioning about 6 p.m., but later released him, Duke said.

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Former Baldwin Park High School star gets 31 years

A man who might have been one of the NFL’s best ever will spend several years in the penitentiary for attacking his girlfriend. Lawrence Phillips, who went from Baldwin Park to the University of Nebraska to the NFL, lived life on the edge

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SAN DIEGO – Ex-NFL running back Lawrence Phillips has been sentenced to more than 31 years in prison for attacking his girlfriend and driving his car into three teens.

Phillips, 34, a former Baldwin Park football star, was sentenced Friday in San Diego for assault and other crimes.

Phillips told the judge he didn’t get a fair trail and he’ll appeal. He switched lawyers several times in the trial, and told friends and family members that he felt like he was badly misrepresented by the public defenders who were assigned to him.

Phillips twice choked his girlfriend in 2005 in San Diego. Later that year, he aimed his car and struck three teens after a pickup football game in Los Angeles.

That car belong to the San Diego victim, and Phillips was originally charged with stealing it.

Ty Pagone, a former Baldwin Park vice principal and football coach who was at the school when Phillips attended it, said he was “horrified” to hear the length of the sentence.

“There are murderers who get shorter sentences and he didn’t kill anyone,” said Pagone. “I don’t think he ever even put anyone in the hospital.”

Pagone added that he believed Phillips did need to answer for his crimes.

“There are no doubt he has made mistakes, but he is not a monster, the way he has been depicted sometimes,” he added.

Pagone said two of Phillips’ other former coaches had attended the hearing in San Diego, Tony Zane of Baldwin Park,

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Dead man was subject of West Covina federal drug probe

Federal agents and West Covina police had been conducting a drug investigation of a man when he was fatally shot Thursday by a West Covina police officer, authorities said Friday.

Emmanuel Alvarez, 27, was wearing a bulletproof vest and had a five pounds of methamphetamine in his car when two West Covina police officers stopped him on Azusa Avenue, just north of Merced Avenue, at about 3 p.m. Thursday, West Covina police Chief Frank Wills said.

Police said Alvarez was shot to death after he reached for a semiautomatic handgun.

“These were criminals that were going to go out in a blaze of glory,” Wills said. “They were all carrying semiautomatic guns and bulletproof vests.”

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, at the request of West Covina police, were conducting a joint investigation into Alvarez and the two other men riding in the car, said Virginia Kice, a spokeswoman with ICE.

Authorities identified those two as Fred Beltran, 23, and the dead man’s brother, Juan Carlos Alvarez, 37.

Wills said Alvarez and the two men were being investigated for “a narcotics violation and possession of illegal narcotics.”

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Covina man suspected of ID theft, grand theft

COVINA — Authorities Thursday announced the arrest of a Covina man suspected of stealing a former employee’s identity in order to sell life insurance policies and collect the commissions.
James Morris, 66, was arrested about 9 a.m. Wednesday at his Covina home and booked on suspicion of eight counts of identity theft and six counts of grand theft, according to California Department of Insurance officials and sheriff’s booking records.
Morris is suspected of stealing a former employee’s identity and using it to submit 15 applications for life insurance policies between April and November of 2007, CDI officials said in a written statement.
He lost his own insurance license in 2003 after similar fraud violations similar to those he’s now accused of, officials said.
Morris allegedly collected nearly $8,500 in commissions from the sales, according to the statement.
The commission payments were made in the former employee’s name, but sent to a bank account controlled by Morris, officials said.
Authorities said they learned of the alleged scheme after the insurance company notified the former employee that he owed them money for commissions paid on fraudulent policies.
According to court records, Morris was released on his own recognizance the day after his arrest.

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Jury convicts men of murdering Pasadena teen

This comes from reporter Nathan McIntire:

PASADENA — A jury Friday convicted two Altadena gang members of murder for their role in the 2007 slaying of 17-year-old John Muir High School student Dion Holloway.
Kamaron Walker, 29, of Duarte was found guilty of first-degree murder and Eric Williams, 32, of Altadena was convicted of second-degree murder stemming from the shooting death of Holloway, a popular high school football player.
Relieved members of Holloway’s family sobbed quietly as the jury foreman read the verdict. Vanessa Shepherd, Holloway’s mother, said outside the courtroom that she was sure Walker and Williams were guilty.
“I’m very happy,” Shepherd said. “They are the ones that did it — we know.”
Holloway’s step-mother, Linda Maden, was also relieved, weeping outside the courtroom.
“(Dion) didn’t deserve this,” Maden said. “He’s gone, and I’m so happy they got the people who did this.”
The jury found that the murder was carried out for the benefit of a criminal street gang, the Altadena Block Crips. Prosecutors had said Holloway was not involved in gangs.
The prosecution’s key witness had identified Walker and Williams as the killers during testimony, but recanted right before leaving the witness stand.
Juan Villatoro, 24, of Altadena initially said that he was riding in a Ford Explorer Williams was driving, along with Walker, on Sept. 25, 2007, when Walker exited the vehicle on the 1700 block of Belmont Avenue.
Villatoro said Walker retrieved a gun from under the hood of the car, approached a group of men and shot Holloway to death.
Deputy District Attorney Shelley Dominguez said her office presented enough evidence to corroborate Villatoro’s initial testimony, even though he recanted.
“I still got the conviction,” Dominguez said. “I think the jury looked at all the evidence and they came to the right conclusion.
Felipe De La Torres, Walker’s attorney, declined to comment for this story.
Walker faces 50 years to life in prison and Williams faces 40 years to life when they are sentenced Tuesday.

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