By Michael Guisti on May 4, 2015
Rialto, CA — There are a number of aggravating and mitigating factors that can affect sentencing in a criminal case. California is one of many states which allows sentencing enhancements for hate crimes, in which violence is motivated by personal prejudice.
Prosecutors in San Bernardino County filed a charge of attempted murder with enhancements for hate crimes against Jeremiah Ajani Bell, 22. Bell, a resident of Fontana, was arrested on suspicion of severely beating a man with a baseball bat on Monday afternoon. Around 2:30 pm, surveillance video shows Bell carrying an aluminum baseball bat in Rialto, then later running away without it. According to witnesses, Bell walked up to the victim, Armando Barron, 54, and began attacking him without saying anything. Bell was arrested at his apartment later that day when officers conducting an unrelated investigation realized that he matched the description of the attacker.
Read the rest »
By Michael Guisti on April 28, 2015
Santa Ana, CA — On Friday, Superior Court Judge Robert R. Fitzgerald decided to allow the trial of Isidro Garcia, 41, on charges of kidnapping and raping an underage girl whom he later married and lived with for several years.
The victim was 15 years old in 2004, at which time her mother was dating Garcia. They had just moved to Santa Ana from Mexico, and she accuses Garcia of fondling her and having sex with her against her will at the time when he was still dating her mother. After the victim had a fight with her mother, she says that Garcia gave her pills that caused her to lose consciousness and when she woke up she was locked in a garage in Compton.
Read the rest »
By Michael Guisti on April 21, 2015
Costa Mesa, CA — Resisting arrest can often lead to additional charges being filed against a suspect. This is particularly true if officers perceive that the suspect is trying to take their weapon. Police say that’s what happened when a Costa Mesa man was arrested this weekend.
Dana Winfred Lofland was arrested while apparently high on drugs on Saturday night. According to the Costa Mesa Police Department, they received reports reports that Lofland, 50, was running into traffic and flailing his arms. When officers were sent to investigate, Lofland ran inside of a Circle K convenience store on Harbor Boulevard. Police say that while they attempted to talk to Lofland the clerk demanded that he leave.
Read the rest »
By Michael Guisti on April 17, 2015
Long Beach, CA — On Tuesday, a pair of alleged bicycle thieves were charged with grand theft in Long Beach. The suspects, Timothy Lewis, 51, and Joseph Griffin, 49, were taken into custody on Saturday following a sting operation near Belmont Pier.
Several businesses and community members had raised concerns about the number of bike thefts in the area, leading to an investigation by the Long Beach PD. On the day of the sting, investigators used a cable and padlock to secure a bicycle to a lamppost at the intersection of Ocean Boulevard and Termino Avenue. They observed as the suspects rode up to the decoy on a pair of bicycles. Lewis was also reportedly rolling a third bicycle alongside his own.
Read the rest »
By Michael Guisti on April 15, 2015
Santa Ana, CA — The issue of police relationships with minority communities remains a sensitive one. Particularly when stories about police officers using lethal force against unarmed minority men fill the airwaves. Recently, a criminal suspect was so frightened for his safety that he called a local newspaper while barricaded inside his aunt’s mobile home in Santa Ana.
The Orange County Register reports that on Thursday morning of last week, their offices received a phone call from Armando Mendoza, 32. Earlier that morning—around 7:15 am— Mendoza, who is a suspect in a carjacking and kidnapping in January, was spotted by Garden Grove police officers who pursued him into the Park Terrace Mobile Home Park in Santa Ana. The Garden Grove and Santa Ana PD both searched for him and determined that he was inside the mobile home owned by his aunt.
Read the rest »
By Michael Guisti on April 9, 2015
San Juan Capistrano, CA — Authorities in Orange County are looking for A.B., 33, in connection with an alleged DUI accident that led to the death of his 5-year-old daughter last year. The accident occurred on March 22nd, 2014 in San Juan Capistrano where surveillance video shows the man's car crashing into an embankment after driving through a parking lot. Three of his other children were also seriously injured in the accident.
According to the Orange County Sheriff’s Department, the defendant has not appeared in court since his arraignment. He is charged with vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence while intoxicated, driving under the influence of alcohol causing bodily injury, and driving with a blood alcohol content of .08 or more causing bodily injury, all felonies, with one misdemeanor count of driving on a suspended license. According to the Orange County DA’s office, the defendant's BAC was .18 at the time of the accident, which is significantly higher than the legal limit.
Read the rest »
By Michael Guisti on April 8, 2015
Los Angeles, CA — The Los Angeles Police Department is searching for a suspect in a shooting that put an 8-year-old boy in the hospital on Sunday night. That evening, in the Del Rey neighborhood of Los Angeles, an intruder entered the family home and fired a gun at the boy's father. One of the shots struck the boy in the head and he was listed in critical but stable condition as of Monday morning.
According to the boy's father, he was expecting his 20-year-old son to come home, and so he did not initially find it suspicious when the front door opened around midnight. When the father left his son's room he found someone he did not recognize. When confronted, the intruder fired multiple shots at the boy's father. It is believed that one of these shots struck the boy. Nobody else in the home was injured. Witnesses say that they saw a white vehicle driving away around the time the gunman fled the scene.
Read the rest »
By Michael Guisti on April 3, 2015
Seal Beach, CA — Making false claims or other misrepresentations in a business transaction can lead to fraud and theft charges being filed against you. Although these charges may not carry the harsh penalties associated with more violent crimes, a criminal record can negatively impact your ability to earn a livelihood in the future.
A Compton man with a lengthy criminal record was arrested in a sting operation in Seal Beach on Thursday. According to a Seal Beach Police Department spokesman, a local business indicated that Earl Howard, 59, wanted to place a suspicious ad. Howard allegedly wanted to advertise a $29,000 diamond for sale at $9,500. Officers posing as interested buyers determined that the diamond was not authentic and arrested Howard on suspicion of attempted grand theft, theft by false pretenses, and commercial burglary.
Read the rest »
By Michael Guisti on April 1, 2015
Anaheim Hills, CA — In some cases it can take years before police are able to identify a suspect in a criminal case. In spite of investigators' best efforts, sometimes the trail goes cold and years pass before the next major development in the case.
Over the weekend it was announced that a major break had been made in a 30-year-old murder investigation. On July 2nd, 1981, a 6-year-old boy went missing while riding his bike in Anaheim Hills. The next day his body was discovered, strangled, at a construction site in Pomona.
Read the rest »
By Michael Guisti on March 27, 2015
Long Beach, CA — Four people have been arrested by the Long Beach Police Department in connection with the kidnapping and death of a 3-month-old girl in January, and the attempted kidnapping of a 4-year-old boy in El Segundo in February. At a news conference on Wednesday, police officials said that they believed Giseleangelique Rene D’Milian, 47, of Thousand Oaks sought to kidnap a boy and a girl in order to convince her married boyfriend that she had given birth to twins while traveling overseas.
As part of this plan, police allege that D’Milian pretended to run a charity that gives help to the mothers of young children in order to find targets for kidnapping. On January 3rd, D’Milian reportedly approached the mother of 3-month-old Eliza Delacruz in Long Beach, and had what police describe as a “basic conversation” with her. Shortly afterwards, Eliza was kidnapped by an assailant who shot her parents and uncle, and was found dead in a dumpster in Imperial Beach the next day.
Read the rest »
