Recently in stabbing Category

We heard this go down over the scanner Tuesday afternoon. It's an interesting story especially when paired with the tale of a homicide in Century City.

Here's some of the Rosemead tale:  

ROSEMEAD - A man was stabbed and robbed of a briefcase full of diamond engagement rings Tuesday, authorities said.

The crime was reported about 5:20 p.m. in the 3600 block of Rosemead Boulevard, Los Angles County sheriff's Lt. Mike O'Shea said.

A man was approached by three Latino men wearing bandanas over their faces and dark hooded sweat shirts, O'Shea said.

One of the suspects pulled a knife and stabbed the victim in his left arm and the robbers grabbed his briefcase, which was filled with diamond engagement rings, O'Shea said.

The victim is believed to be either a jewelry dealer or maker who stopped for dinner on his way to meet clients, he added.

Then there's this story from Century City: 

Apparently an argument led to this. Four people were injured. One seriously. Here's the story:

WEST COVINA - The DJ at a house party was arrested early Sunday after he allegedly stabbed two people and hit two others with his car, authorities said.

Luis Perez, 23, of Baldwin Park was arrested shortly after the incident and was booked on suspicion of attempted murder, West Covina police Lt. Marcos Plebani said.

The alleged attack occurred about 2 a.m. at a house in the 1600 block of West Louisa Avenue, he said.

"He slashed one person in the back yard, then stabbed another person multiple times in the front yard," Plebani said.

A 26-year-old man was hospitalized with three stab wounds to his stomach and lower chest, said West Covina Fire Department Capt. Jim Rudroff.

The injuries were initially believed to be life threatening, however the wounded man was expected to survive after undergoing surgery, police and fire officials said. Another man suffered a superficial stab wound but did not seek treatment from fire officials.

Certain events retain a power that stays with you for life. Clearly the Kennedy assassinations or that of Martin Luther King have that sort of effect on people.

I would argue that June 18, 1994 might be one of those moments -- certainly in my life.

The title of this post should give away the content (if the picture doesn't). I spent that Friday from about 6:30 a.m. until at least 11 p.m. outside Parker Center, O.J. Simpson's Brentwood home and back outside Parker Center as part of one of the most surreal events I'll ever cover.

Here's some of what we ran the following day:

Simpson's arrest ends day of drama

'Fallen American hero' faces murder charges in death of former wife, her friend

By Tom Scanlon, Tori Richards and Frank Girardot Staff Writers

O.J. SImpson took off on the longest, most dangerous run of his life before being arrested on murder charges last night.

"O.J. Simpson is in custody," said LAPD Cmdr. David Gascon at a 10 p.m. news conference. "He is being booked and processed."

The double murder defendant -- called a "fallen American hero" by the man in charge of prosecuting him was arrested at his Brentwood home after a 60-mile 90-minute police chase. The chase began in Orange County and crossed much of Los Angeles with Simpson, 46, keeping police away by pointing a gun to his head.

The 8:50 p.m. arrest of Simpson, accused of killing his ex-wife and her male friend capped a bizarre day that included a bomb scare, fears that Simpson would kill himself, a mysterious 911 call to the home of murdered Nicole Brown Simpson, pleas by officials to have Simpson turn himself in, a police force on the defensive and a public reading of an emotional note from Simpson.

The former USC and National Football League star running back had eluded police since 11 a.m. when he was suppossed to turn himself in.

The question of the day was "Where's O.J.?" For most of the day the Los Angeles Police Department had no answer.

He was considered armed and dangerous, and after he was finally arrested, a gun was recovered from the cat that led police on a chase watched by much of the country.

Simpson was carrying photos of Nicole Simpson and their daughter when he was arrested. Gascon said SImpson would be taken to the Men's Central Jail. He probably will be held there -- perhaps under a suicide watch -- until Monday, when he is likely to ... 

A teenager was stabbed to death Sunday night in Pasadena, police said Monday.

The teen, identified as Osman Villalobos, 18,  was attacked about 9:40 p.m. Sunday in the 1300 block of Iowa Avenue and died at a hospital about an hour later, Lt. John Dewar of the
Pasadena PD told reporters.

A suspect in the case, Pasqual Diaz, 22, was arrested early Monday morning when he was foud hiding at a friends house, officials said.

The stabbing stemmed from an argument that turned into a fistfight before it turned deadly, Dewar said.

Villalobos was stabbed several times in the chest and in the side of the rib cage, authorities said.

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.

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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.

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.

EL MONTE - A stabbing, a shooting, three search warrants leading to a major pot bust and a bomb scare involving 30 pounds of TNT.
It's a roll call of major crime that sounds like it could fit neatly into a busy month for any police department.
But in El Monte, those calls made up part of a frantic 48 hours that saw police handle two homicides - making arrests in both cases; bust up a $2 million pot operation 15 miles away in Rowland Heights; and swiftly clear a neighborhood endangered by 30 pounds of TNT.
"We have a very active city," said police Chief Ken Weldon. "It's a challenge to stay on top of it." 

The stabbing of a man outside the Scenic Bar and Hotel on Garvey Avenue in El Monte Monday night was the city's seventh this year, according to authorities.

By comparison, at this time last year there were just three homicides in El Monte. What a difference a year makes.

Here's the Tribune's 2007 homicide database that I put together last year. You can search El Monte for the 2007 totals. 

There's a lot of action on the crime beat today. Here's some examples:

Teen to be arraigned in Columbine-style threats posted on Wikipedia.

An El Monte man was stabbed to death outside a Garvey Avenue bar.

A decomposed body was found late Monday off San Gabriel Canyon Road between Azusa and Glendora. (not many details on this yet)

And, there's this video of an ATM robbery in Norwalk:

This from Brian Day...notice Rosenberg's quote about how the Rosemead deputies contributed to the arrest:

ROSEMEAD — Investigators have arrested a man and woman on suspicion of fatally stabbing a local man following an argument Monday.

Jesus Murieta, 29, and Leticia Sanchez, 41, were arrested Wednesay on suspicion of murder, said Lt. Dan Rosenberg of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Homicide Bureau. Both suspects are transients, he said.
Murieta and Sanchez are believed to have stabbed 20-year-old Leonel Cervantes in the “upper torso” about 7:30 p.m. in the 2700 block of Delta Avenue, Rosenberg said.

Cervantes died from his wounds about 1:25 a.m. the following day at Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center, said Los Angeles County Department of Coroner Assistant Chief Ed Winter.

Rosenberg declined to say which suspect was believed to have wielded the knife.
The stabbing apparently stemmed from an argument between the suspects and Cervantes that occurred minutes earilier at a nearby park, Rosenberg said.

 

A hearing in the Man-Ling Williams case, scheduled for Wednesday, was postponed to a date in the future that has yet to be determined.

Eventually there will be a preliminary hearing in the case. When that will take place is anybody's guess.

Williams is accused of killing her husband by slashing him to death with a ninja sword last August. She is also accused of killing the couple's two children by smothering them to death in their beds.

The family lived in an apartment/condo in Rowland Heights.