L.A. Security News
June 21, 2013Aaron Hernandez to be arrested in homicide case, report says
An arrest warrant has been issued for New England Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez in connection with the shooting death Monday of a Massachusetts man, according to a Boston radio report.
Citing an unnamed law enforcement source, WBZ NewsRadio reported Friday that Hernandez faces a charge of obstruction of justice and that there’s a possibility that count could eventually be upgraded. The station said it is not clear when and where Hernandez will be arrested.
The body of 27-year-old Odin Lloyd of Dorchester, Mass., was discovered Monday in an industrial park in North Attleborough, less than a mile from Hernandez’s home. WBZ reported that Lloyd had been shot in the head, but an unnamed law enforcement official told the Boston Globe that he had been shot “multiple times.”
ABC News reported Thursday that a video surveillance system in Hernandez’s home was intentionally smashed, and that a cellphone used by him was handed over to investigators “in pieces.” Also, a crew cleaned the player’s home Monday.
The Boston Globe reported Friday that video images taken early Monday morning appear to show Hernandez and Lloyd together on Fayston Street in Boston, and that a second video shows Hernandez later that morning in North Attleborough.
The newspaper, citing an unnamed law enforcement official, said Hernandez is not cooperating with police.
16-year-old gang member gets 90 years to life for killing 1-year-old
A gang member who last year shot and killed a 1-year-old boy while the toddler was being held in his father’s arms was sentenced Friday to 90 years to life in prison.
In the incident last June, Donald Ray Dokins, then 15, rode his bicycle to a home on the 10500 block of Hickory Street in Watts and opened fire, killing 14-month-old Angel Mauro Cortez Vega and injuring his father, Mauro Cortez.
Authorities said Dokins, a member of the Fudgetown Mafia Crips gang, saw the father’s purple T-shirt and assumed he was a member of Varrio Grape Street, a rival gang.
Cortez, who was born in rural Mexico, is “absolutely not” a gang member, said Deputy Dist. Atty. Danette Gomez, who prosecuted Dokins.
The deadly shooting reverberated beyond Watts and drew outrage in the city, with Los Angeles City Council member Joe Buscaino securing a $50,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of the killer. AEG, which owns the Los Angeles Kings and the Staples Center, doubled the reward.
Dokins was convicted in April of first-degree murder and attempted murder. Jury deliberations took less than 90 minutes, according to Gomez, a member of the D.A.’s hard-core gang division.
During the three-week-long trial, jurors heard from the child’s parents as well as a neighbor who discovered the shooter’s gray hooded sweatshirt as it burned in an abandoned property, prosecutors said. On the charred sweatshirt’s cuff and collar, authorities found Dokin’s DNA.
Dokins, now 16, was prosecuted as an adult, Gomez said. He’ll remain in the Department of Juvenile Justice until he is 18 before serving the rest of his sentence in prison.
Prison releases pose no danger, experts testified
Early prison releases of the kind ordered by a federal court panel pose no threat to public safety, according to experts who testified on the matter the last time it came up in California.
In those 2009 hearings, five experts on crime, punishment and prisons told the court that allowing inmates with good behavior to shorten their prison terms by several months has little, if any, effect on crime in the community.
“There is no difference in recidivism rates by length of stay,” James Austin, a Washington-based corrections consultant, testified at the time.
Among those agreeing with him was Jeffrey Beard, who at the time was Pennsylvania’s prisons chief and now is the California corrections secretary.
Law enforcement groups reacting to Thursday’s federal court order for California to immediately begin releasing inmates early because of good behavior took an opposite stance.
“The court has shown a complete disregard for the safety of communities across California,” said Covina Police Chief Kim Raney, president of the California Police Chiefs Assn.
California has had early-release credits for a while. In 2009, lawmakers allowed inmates to shave off up to six weeks a year for completing approved programs, one day off for every day in prison discipline-free, and two days off for every day served at a fire camp.
The new court-ordered plan would require California, unless it comes up with other solutions, to give minimum-custody inmates two days off for every one served and to apply those credits retroactively. Thursday’s order estimates that 5,385 inmates could be released that way by the end of December.
In past court filings, the state said it would take three months to set up and review inmate files before it could begin the releases. In its May plan to the court, the state had proposed that some criminals, such as sex offenders, not be eligible for the credits.
Fugitive in Macy’s gift card fraud case arrested in Las Vegas
It’s not exactly the Bling Ring, but Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department deputies arrested the remaining fugitive in what officials say was a scheme built around fraudulent Macy’s gift cards that targeted more than 40 stores and netted more than $200,000.
Richard Reyes Duenas, 30, was arrested in Las Vegas and booked Thursday in Los Angeles County on felony charges including grand theft, conspiracy to commit fraud and access card fraud, officials said.
Duenas had been hunted by authorities since he was charged by Los Angeles County prosecutors in January 2012.
According to police, Duenas worked with four other men — Justin Delgadillo, Noemi Fuentefria, Geovani Vega and Daniel Alvarez — who together stole data and sold forged Macy’s gift cards on the street.
Police said Duenas obtained inactive Macy’s gift card numbers and PIN codes, forged cards using those numbers and sold them. Other cards, authorities said, were used by the men to buy Apple merchandise.
The men hauled in about $218,000 overall, according to prosecutors. The others in the case have been convicted.
Police said the ring was uncovered when Duenas was pulled over during a traffic stop in 2010 and claimed he was a “sovereign citizen,” one of a group of people who refuse to recognize government law and authority.
Duenas was arrested during the stop and a search of his car turned up 16 fake Macy’s gift cards, according to police.
Woman fatally stabbed in Hollywood over $1, police say
As Christine Darlene Calderon strolled down Hollywood’s Walk of Fame with her co-worker just after sunset on Tuesday, an amusing cardboard sign caught her eye.
She pulled out her cellphone to snap a picture of men displaying signs asking for money with four-letter insults and a smiley face.
Moments later, according to a law enforcement source, one of the men demanded she pay a dollar for the picture. When she refused, police say, two of the men allegedly pinned Calderon’s co-worker against a wall. The third jumped on top of Calderon, knocking the 23-year-old onto the pavement in front of an American Eagle Outfitters clothing store at Hollywood Boulevard and Highland Avenue, police said.
When she got up to run away, authorities said, blood was gushing from a stab wound in her midsection. She collapsed just a few feet from the Walk of Fame. She was pronounced dead at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center three hours later.
Her death in the heart of Hollywood’s tourist district stunned both visitors and the collection of merchants and costumed impersonators who work along the boulevard.
Los Angeles police detained two men near the crime scene at midnight and a third man was arrested hours later on suspicion of murder. Police described the trio, believed to be 27 to 34 years old, as transients.
One of them was known to frequent the Hollywood area, police said, while two others were believed to have come from out of state. Police spent Wednesday tracking down witnesses and reviewing surveillance video.
Family members said Calderon knew the Hollywood area and sometimes hung out there with friends.
Her mother, Yolonde Tassin, said she had a feeling something was wrong when Calderon stopped responding to text messages Tuesday night.
So when she opened the door of her Lynwood home Wednesday morning and saw the look in the detective’s eyes, she knew.
“I said, ‘My daughter’s dead isn’t she?’ ” Tassin said. “And he gave me a slight nod.”
Tassin sighed as she shuffled through pictures of her daughter Wednesday. There was the one of her at Magic Mountain as a child. And lots of her opening presents on Dec. 25 — her birthday.
“We always celebrated Christmas on Christmas Eve,” Tassin said. “Christine would always have her special day on Christmas.”
After a tumultuous few years during which she had been estranged from her mother, Calderon had completed her GED and begun to turn her life around. She stopped drinking and doing drugs, Tassin said, and a few days ago she went to El Camino Community College to register for classes.
“Her plan was to become an engineer,” Tassin said, fighting back tears. “She didn’t want to waste years. She wanted to get in there and do it right.”
Despite the tourist attractions and upscale stores at Hollywood and Highland, people who work in the area say it still has a grittier side.
From the kiosk he mans near the crime scene, Ethan Lam heard screams echo from the iconic intersection where throngs of tourists pour out of the Metro’s underbelly every day to snap photos of TCL’s Chinese Theatre, actors dressed as Chewbacca and Spiderman and the Hollywood sign in the hills.
Lam ran toward the noise, where a crowd had gathered around Calderon on Tuesday night. She was wearing jeans and a white top, Lam recalled, adding that he saw several people clutching her stomach to try to stop the bleeding. When paramedics showed up, he said, her shirt was soaked red.
“It was right there, man,” Lam said Wednesday afternoon as he pointed to a few maroon droplets dried onto the store’s wall.
Victor Guererro, a 25-year-old Mickey Mouse impersonator, said he’s seen it all during the 11/2 years he’s worked on the Walk of Fame.
There have been fights and arrests, he said, adding that a few days ago he saw a homeless man grilling carne asada on a camping stove and selling tacos.
“Hay tanta locura,” he said. “There’s so much madness.”
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