Recently in Altadena Category

The Board of Supervisors doubled the $10,00 reward being offered for information in the slaying of a 90-year-old Altadena woman. This comes from one of our wire services:

The reward for information leading to an arrest and conviction was originally posted a
few days after the body of Evelyn Mosely was found on May 8 in her home, which had
been deliberately set on fire.

Firefighters who quickly extinguished the blaze at 3225 Lincoln Ave. discovered her
body in the kitchen, and investigators found signs of a struggle.

A housekeeper was booked on suspicion of murder hours later but was quickly exonerated and set free.

Anyone with information about Mosely's death was asked to call sheriff's homicide Lt.
Liam Gallagher at (323) 890-5500.

CBS 2 KCAL is reporting two homicides overnight. One in West Covina. Victim there remains unidentified.

The other incident was reported in Altadena. I've got some emails about the Altadena incident that I'll post on the jump. Here's the news story:

LOS ANGELES At least two men were gunned down in Los Angeles Friday night, according to officials.

The first homicide, in West Covina, was reported about 11:20, said West Covina police Lt. Tommy Garcia.

Responding to a "shots fired" call, police found the body of a young man in a yard near 1450 W. Puente Ave.

The victim's name was withheld pending notification of his family.

Meanwhile, in Altadena, another man was fatally shot about 1:10 a.m.

The victim in that shooting was declared dead at the hospital.

The shooting occured in the 100 block of Figueroa Drive, according to Deputy Rick Pedroza of the Sheriff's Headquarter's Bureau.

Detectives are investigating the circumstances that led up to the shooting and searching for a suspect.

As for my emails ...

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.

Here's the latest:

ALTADENA - Homicide detectives are investigating the death of an elderly woman found in a Lincoln Avenue home gutted by fire early Thursday, after blood and other signs of a struggle were found at the scene.

Firefighters were dispatched to the home on the 3200 block of North Lincoln Avenue at about 10 a.m. Thursday and found two rooms of the house in flames, said L.A. County Fire Inspector Ron Haralson.

Firefighters knocked down the fire within minutes and found the dead woman inside, Haralson said.

"Right now we have no details about whether she was killed by fire or smoke," said Haralson, adding that there were signs of trauma on the body. He described the woman as approximately 90 years old and of unknown race, but would not release her identity.

But neighbors and relatives identified the woman as Evelyn Mosley, a 90 year old who lived at the location for about six years with her daughter and teen-aged grandson.

"Oh my God, does Sandy know, does her grandson know?" said Jacqueline Jackson, a neighbor, who broke into tears when she heard the news.

A woman who claimed to be the victim's god-daughter also identified her as Evelyn Mosley, and property records show a Sandy Mosley Hamilton living at the address.

Reporter Fred Ortega is on the scene. Here's what he told me earlier:

ALTADENA -- An elderly woman was found dead at a house in the 3200 block of Lincoln Avenue, after firefighters were dispatched to the home Thursday morning.

The woman, who was not identified as believed to be in her 90s, officials said. Her body showed signs of having suffered trauma.

The fire was reported about 10:00 a.m., according to Los Angeles County Fire Inspector Ron Haralson.

Homicide detectives and the Los Angeles County Sheriff's bomb squad have been dispatched to the scene.

No further details were available.

This from the Associated Press:

DEATH VALLEY NATIONAL PARK, Calif. (AP) — Bone-white stretches of salt, leached up from the lifeless soil, lay like a shroud over the high desert where a paranoid Charles Manson holed up after an orgy of murder nearly four decades ago.

Now, as then, few venture into this alkaline wilderness — gold-diggers, outlaws, loners content to live and let live. But a determined group of outsiders recently made the trek. They were leading forensic investigators searching for new evidence of death — clues pointing to possible decades-old clandestine graves.

And the results of just-completed followup tests suggest bodies could indeed be lying beneath the parched ground. The test findings — described in detail to The Associated Press, which had accompanied the site search — conclude there are two likely clandestine grave sites at Barker Ranch, and one additional site that merits further investigation.

Next step, the ad hoc investigators urge: Dig.

The SGV connection?

Leslie Van Houten,  former Monrovia High School homecoming queen. 

Here's what we'll be reporting tomorrow:

Six violent sex offenders living in an Altadena group home will be moved out over the next several days, officials said. The move comes after strong public protests from residents of the Meadows.

I don't know much mor ethan this...but we'll stay on top of this story.

Who would?

Just look at the cast of characters living in the halfway house in the 4400 block of Risinghill:

[BULLET]Ernesto Corona Ayala, 51, convicted of lewd and lascivious acts with a child under the age of 14.

[BULLET]Gerald Christoph Baca, 56, also convicted of lewd and lascivious acts with a child under the age of 14.

[BULLET]Ernest Brian Bradley, 37, convicted of lewd and lascivious acts with a child under the age of 14 and convicted of using force.

[BULLET]John Fitzgerald Carter, 43, convicted of forcible rape.

[BULLET]Cedric Parker, 47, convicted of forcible rape and sexual battery.

[BULLET]Anthony Raymond Rayas, 44, convicted of sodomy and lewd and lascivious acts with a child under the age of 14.

As many as 150 people who don’t want this group of unsavory criminals in their neighborhood demanded the removal of the halfway home from their quiet neighborhood Tuesday night.

“Please don’t underestimate us,” Latrell Cottele-Moore, a longtime Meadows resident told the crowd. “We will do whatever is necessary to get them out.”

Their pleas received little more than lip service.

A spokesman for state Sen. Jack Scott, D-Pasadena, essentially told the residents there were no easy solutions to the problem.

According to reporter Elise Kleeman, New Beginnings Sober Living, which operates the home, told residents “the matter is being looked into by the company.”

Who knows what that means?

The Sheriff’s Department assured everyone the offenders were all wearing GPS-equipped anklet bracelets.

Translated, that means detectives will know where an offender has been after a crime has been committed.

Perhaps it should come as no surprise that the bureaucracies and corporations promoting halfway homes for sex offenders can offer little in the way of solutions for a residential neighborhood in an unincorporated portion of Los Angeles County.

What might be surprising though is that clusters of sex offenders are everywhere in the San Gabriel Valley.

Using a simple search of the state’s Megan’s Law Web site, I found groups of these men living together in Azusa, Bassett, Pasadena, Montebello and El Monte. They are everywhere — even Beverly Hills.

In some cases, they are close to schools and churches. In others they live in residential neighborhoods. Plenty live in trailer parks and motels along Garvey Avenue, and Colorado and Whittier boulevards.

Last August, when the state budget crisis was in full swing, there was a possibility that California would stop paying rent for these guys. Then, instead of being housed and sort of monitored, a lot of sex offenders would have been homeless.

Something in our government is broken. You don’t have to look any further than Risinghill Road in Altadena or the Megan’s Law Web site to see it.

These are the guys who are living in a group home in Altadena. All are charged with sex offenses and all are being monitored electronically. This information comes from the California state Megan's Law web-site

Here they are:

Ernesto Corona Ayala, 51
Lewd or lacivious acts with a child under 14

Gerald Christoph Baca, 56

Lewd or lacivious acts with a child under 14

Ernest Brian Bradley

288(a) LEWD OR LASCIVIOUS ACTS WITH CHILD UNDER 14 YEARS
288(b)(1) LEWD OR LASCIVIOUS ACTS WITH CHILD UNDER 14 YEARS W/FORCE

John Fitzgerald Carter

261(a)(2) RAPE BY FORCE/FEAR/ETC

Cedric Parker

261(a)(2) RAPE BY FORCE/FEAR/ETC
f243.4 SEXUAL BATTERY

Anthony Rayas Raymond

286(c)(2) SODOMY WITH FORCE, VIOLENCE, ETC.
288(a) LEWD OR LASCIVIOUS ACTS WITH CHILD UNDER 14 YEARS