NORWALK — The fate of a man accused of killing his girlfriend’s 17-month-old daughter while baby-sitting her in La Mirada was placed in the hands of a Norwalk Superior Court jury Thursday afternoon, officials said.
Mark Vaughn, 22, of Corona is charged with murder and child abuse causing death in connection with the Jan. 24, 2011 death of Jayden Brianne Turner.
After attorneys finished their closing arguments Thursday, the jury began deliberating at 1:30 p.m., court officials said.
The child suffered head injuries while he was watching her in the 15200 block of Valeda Drive in La Mirada. She died at a hospital four days later.
Vaughn told investigators the baby fell from a chair and hit her head, but an autopsy concluded in late March of 2011 that Turner’s death was a homicide.
Monthly Archives: January 2013
UPDATED: Extra patrols sent to Arcadia High School after email mentions armed students
ARCADIA — Police placed extra patrols at Arcadia High School Thursday after administrators received an anonymous email stating their may be armed students on campus, officials aid.
The email was discovered and reported to police shortly after 10 a.m., Arcadia police Lt. Bob Anderson said.
“It was an anonymous email that was received by one of the supervisors,” Anderson said. “It stated there might be two students on campus with handguns.”
Police launched an investigation into the email, he said.
Police and school officials decided to continue the school day, which was already on a shortened for mid-term exams, but with extra police presence at the campus, Anderson said. The school was not placed on lockdown.
“Nothing was discovered to lead us to believe it was a credible threat,” Anderson said.
About 10 police officers stood by at the school until dismissal at 12:37 p.m., he said.
Police plan checkpoint in Whittier
WHITTIER — Police are planning to check drivers for sobriety and valid drivers licenses late Friday at a checkpoint.
The checkpoint will take place from 7:30 p.m. Friday to 3 a.m. at an undisclosed location within Whittier, Whittier police officials said in a written statement.
As officers screen drivers passing through the checkpoint for signs if impairment and proper licensing, they will “strive to delay motorists only momentarily,” according to the police statement.
In the jurisdiction of the Whittier Police Department, which also includes Santa Fe Springs, “Over the course of the past three years, DUI collisions have claimed 3 lives and resulted in 100 injury crashes harming 156 of our friends and neighbors,” Sgt. Rob Hanson said.
Funding for Friday night’s checkpoint is being provided by a grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety, through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
Anyone who spots a drunken driver on the road is encouraged to report it by calling 9-1-1.
Driver runs after crashing possibly stolen car in Monrovia
MONROVIA — Police sought a man early Thursday who crashed a possibly stolen car, then ran away.
The man crashed a Honda Accord into a parked Toyota Corolla about 8:10 a.m. in the 200 block of West Hillcrest Boulevard, Monrovia police Lt. Nells Ortlund said.
Both airbags in the Honda deployed in the crash, which pushed the Toyota into the middle of the street, the lieutenant said.
The driver abandoned the Honda at the scene of the crash and ran, Ortlund said. Witnesses reported seeing him headed west on Hillcrest Boulevard. He was described as a black man wearing a white T-shirt and dark-colored pants.
Police were looking into the possibility the Honda was stolen, Ortlund said. The process was slowed by DMV information indicating the car had been sold several times recently.
Three hurt — one critically — in head-on crash on Huntington Drive in Arcadia
ARCADIA — One person was critically injured and two others were in serious condition after a BMW and a Toyota crashed head-on Wednesday night.
Arcadia Police Lt. Mike Castro said one of the cars was traveling the wrong way before the collision.
But due to conflicting statements and the injuries to the people involved, police Thursday were still investigating which of the two vehicles was heading eastbound on westbound Huntington Drive.
The crash was reported to police at 9:16 p.m.
Castro said the woman driving the Toyota sustained critical injuries. A woman who was a passenger in the Toyota and the man driving the BMW were seriously injured, he added.
All three were taken to Huntington Memorial Hospital.
There were no further details.
– Ruby Gonzales
Three suspects deny charges in Christmas Day slaying of Victor McClinton in Pasadena
PASADENA — Three men accused of the Christmas Day murder of Pasadena community volunteer and sheriff’s employee Victor McClinton denied the charges Wednesday.
Defendants Larry Bishop, 20, of Chino, Jerron Harris, 25, of Pasadena and Gary Davis, 20, of Pasadena, entered not guilty pleas in Los Angeles Superior Court, court officials said.
Bishop and Harris, who are accused of being the triggermen in the fatal Dec. 25 shooting in the 1900 block of Newport Avenue, are charged with murder, attempted murder, shooting at an inhabited dwelling and being a felon in possession of a firearm. They are also accused of the special circumstances of shooting from a vehicle and committing the crimes for the benefit of a street gang.
Davis is accused of being an accessory after the fact.
All three were ordered back to court Feb. 15 for a preliminary hearing setting, court officials said.
The court will also hold hearing on requests by Davis to have his case separated from the other two defendants, as well as to have his bail reduced, officials added.
McClinton, a 49-year-old Pasadena man worked as a Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department law enforcement technician and founded a nonprofit youth sports league in Pasadena. Police said he was an innocent bystander who was fatally shot by a bullet intended for another man.
The intended target of the victim, described as a 24-year-old gang associate, was wounded in the attack, police said.
County booking records show Bishop and Davis were being held without bail, while Davis’ bail is $1 million.
Arcadia man accused of year-long credit card fraud spree
Prosecutors Wednesday filed eight felony charges, with more likely to come later, against an Arcadia man who used a complex credit card fraud and forgery scheme to support an opulent lifestyle at the expense of others for more than a year, investigators said.
South Pasadena police arrested Feng Xian, 21, Monday on charges including forgery, fraud, burglary and possession of equipment for forging fake credit cards, South Pasadena police Detective Bill Earley said.
At a room he was renting in Arcadia, police found 244 allegedly fraudulent credit cards, along with embossing machines and electronic equipment used to create the bogus cards, the detective said.
And it appeared Xian, who drove a Mercedes-Benz and wore designer clothing and jewelry despite having “no visible means of support,” had been involved in the scheme for many months.
“He’s been doing this for at least a year,” Earley said. “I have receipts more than a year old.”
PHOTOS of seized property, suspect Feng Xian courtesy of the South Pasadena Police Department
UPDATED: Overheard statement leads to lockdown, search at Los Altos High School in Hacienda Heights
HACIENDA HEIGHTS — School police and sheriff’s deputies found nothing suspicious as they searched Los Altos High School Wednesday after a student reported overhearing other students possibly talking about a gun in a campus bathroom.
The incident began about 8:45 a.m. Wednesday at the school, 15325 E. Los Robles Avenue, Los Angeles County sheriff’s Lt. Vic Sotelo said.
“A student who was in one of the restrooms overheard two other students that were in one of the bathroom stalls saying, ‘it’s loaded,’” the lieutenant said. The student did not report seeing a gun.
The student reported the incident to administrators, who then checked the bathroom but found no one inside, Sotelo said.
Sheriff’s deputies assisted officers from the Hacienda La Puente Unified School District in locking down the school and looking for the student who made the alarming statement, as well as any weapon on campus, Sotelo said.
Several buildings on the campus were being checked, and both students and classrooms were searched with the help of a police dog.
Officials searched each of the school’s more than 2,000 students, sheriff’s Sgt. Desiree Rodriguez said.
The lockdown was lifted about 3 p.m., and parents were advised to park at nearby St. John Vianney Church, 1345 Turnbull Canyon Road, to pick up students. They were told they must be listed on the students’ emergency contact card and have photo identification.
“The students and the staff are safe and we had immediate law enforcement response,” school district Superintendent Barbara Nakaoka said.
In addition to district police officers, “I believe we had probably 125 sheriff’s deputies there,” she said.
Parents of students were notified of the incident via automated phone calls as well as the district’s web and Facebook pages.
Though nothing dangerous was discovered in the end, Nakaoka said, “We have to take everything seriously.”
AP: Judges say courts under siege from budget cuts
From the Associated Press:
LOS ANGELES—A famous judge sits in a cold, shuttered courtroom pushing papers while the California Supreme Court chief justice fumes over the state of court funding.
“I hear people on television all the time saying, ‘We’ll have our day in court,'” said Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye. “And I nudge my husband and say, ‘Don’t they know there aren’t any courts anymore?'”
The statement is an exaggeration, but it emphasizes frustration by those in the court system over budget cuts that have closed courtrooms around the state, halted new construction and taken a toll on the administration of justice.
Gov. Jerry Brown’s proposed budget, focusing heavily on education with scant mention of courts, provided disappointment to judges as it proposed taking $200 million from court construction funds to postpone additional court cuts after hundreds of millions of dollars were previously slashed.
Ten courthouses—from Beverly Hills to Pomona— are set to close in Los Angeles County alone and seven will close in Fresno County. Some people with legal problems in San Bernardino and Humboldt Counties may have to drive hours to find a courtroom. Once they get there they will probably wait in long lines.
“This has been a slow motion train wreck since 2008,” said Judge Lance Ito, the judge who oversaw the murder trial of O.J. Simpson and now shuttles between courts after his courtroom was closed in the latest budget cutbacks.
He can be found either filling in for a sick judge or reviewing petitions from life-term prisoners in a courtroom stripped of chairs in the jury box and witness stand. His robe is in the closet until he’s called to help in another court.
“I have no staff, no bailiff, no court reporter and I have to persuade friendly clerks to enter minute orders,” Ito said. “There’s no heat in here and the furniture has been cannibalized.”
Three wounded in Pomona shooting
POMONA — Three people were wounded in a shooting in a residential neighborhood late Saturday, authorities said.
The shooting was reported about 9:12 p.m. in the 700 block of Washington Avenue, Los Angeles County Fire Department Dispatch Supervisor Bernard Peters said.
One patient, described as a man, was taken to a trauma center, Peters said.
Two other patients were taken to a local hospital with less-serious injuries, he said. A description of them was not available.
“They were all stable when transported,” Peters said.
The circumstances of shooting were not available, nor was any suspect information, as Pomona police provided no information about the shooting Sunday afternoon.