Family Outraged Over Plea Deal In 2018 Killings Of Man, His Parents In Los Angeles

Family members of three people murdered by a 61-year-old woman are outraged with a plea deal that they say could allow for the killer's release. Prosecutors say Nancy Jackson killed a man and his elderly parents in their Los Angeles home in 2018. Jackson pleaded guilty to the murders on the heels of a plea deal that could put her behind bars for 75 years to life. Gilbert Wright, a family member of the victims and a L.A. County deputy district attorney, said Jackson should be facing life without the possibility of parole in a jury trial. "Everybody knows that there's this elder statute out there that's says if you're over 50 and you've served 20 continuous years in jail, you can come up for parole," Wright said. "So in essence that's why I say it's a 20 year sentence for committing three intentional, unjustifiable murders." The family of the victims say they were waiting for the day that they could get justice. Now they say they never will and they will never have closure. "People of this state do not get justice. The criminals get more justice than the people who are suffering from the crimes at the hands of criminals," said Terry Carter, a family member of the victims.

ABC 7

Metro Subway Stabbing Suspect Charged With Murder, Has History Of Violence

A man suspected of fatally stabbing a woman on a Metro B (Red) Line train in the Studio City area -- and who has a prior conviction for attacking someone on a Metro train -- was charged Wednesday with murder. Elliott Tramel Nowden, 45, was also charged with first-degree robbery in connection with the attack that occurred around 5 a.m. Monday on the train between North Hollywood and Universal City. District Attorney George Gascón said the murder charge includes a special circumstance allegation of murder during a robbery, opening Nowden to a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole if he is convicted as charged. Nowden was being held in lieu of $2 million bail, but Gascón said prosecutors were asking him to be held without bail. He was expected to appear in a downtown Los Angeles courtroom for arraignment Wednesday, according to the District Attorney's Office. Police said the victim -- 66-year-old Mirna Soza Arauz -- had boarded the downtown-bound train at the nearby North Hollywood station and was stabbed in an apparently unprovoked attack. She managed to exit the train when it arrived at the Universal City Station in the 3900 block of Lankershim Boulevard in Studio City, where she was found mortally wounded on the platform.

Westside Current

Bicyclist Killed In Rollover Crash Following Police Pursuit In South LA

A bicyclist was killed in a violent crash that started with police officers chasing a robbery suspect. The collision happened after 6 a.m. as LAPD officers began following a person who they believed was involved in a theft on East 48th and Central Streets. Officers tried to stop the driver, but he continued on, which triggered a short pursuit spanning several blocks within the same neighborhood. As the driver tried to run away from police, the suspect vehicle struck a bicyclist who happened to be in the area of 45th Street and Hooper Avenue but kept going. “[The suspect's car] struck multiple other vehicles and ultimately flipped over on 45th Hooper,” Det. Meghan Aguilar of the LAPD said. The suspect managed to climb out of the overturned vehicle and tried to run on foot until officers detained him. 

NBC 4

Security Guard In Los Angeles Critically Injured After Stabbing

A security guard was stabbed multiple times during an attack in Koreatown near Los Angeles Wednesday morning. The incident was reported at a shopping plaza in the Pico-Union neighborhood shortly before 3 a.m., according to the Los Angeles Police Department. Authorities said the injured security guard was able to call 9-1-1 after he was stabbed by at least two suspects. When crews arrived to the scene at West Olympic Boulevard near South New Hampshire Avenue they found the security guard, believed to be in his 60s, with multiple stab wounds. He was taken to the hospital and is listed in critical, but stable condition. It was unclear what led to the attack but there was fresh graffiti seen in the area. The motive is still under investigation. Police have not released any information about the suspect.

CBS 2

LAPD Arrests 93 People at USC Amid Israel-Hamas War-Protests

Los Angeles police officers arrived in riot gear at USC on Wednesday evening, arresting 93 people on trespassing charges as they cleared an encampment at the center of campus formed in protest against the Israel-Hamas war. “Shame on you! Shame on you!” demonstrators chanted as police took away students and off-campus activists. The encampment in Alumni Park — where the university’s main-stage commencement is scheduled to take place next month — went up before sunrise and grew by afternoon as students, some wearing kaffiyehs and holding “free Palestine” and “liberated zone” signs, banged drums and chanted. The protest remained largely peaceful but grew tense at times as officers sought to detain and move people off campus and some in the crowd threw water bottles. The operation lasted for hours, and at 9 p.m. officers had forced protesters and onlookers off campus and arrested those who remained or resisted. Dozens of LAPD officers were on campus starting at 4 p.m., forming a line around the park. The USC administration said it had closed the gates to campus and was instituting an ID check to make sure only university-affiliated individuals were allowed in. Professors were given the option — which many took — of conducting classes online Thursday.

Los Angeles Times

High-Ranking Advisor To L.A. DA Gascón Hit With 11 Felony Charges

A high-ranking official in the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office is facing criminal charges filed by California’s state attorney general Wednesday, authorities announced. Ethics and Integrity Assistant District Attorney Diana Teran, a top advisor to DA George Gascón, who oversees cases involving public corruption, fraud and police misconduct, has been charged with 11 felony violations. “It is alleged Teran accessed computer data including numerous confidential peace officer files in 2018, while working as a Constitutional Policing Advisor at the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, and, after joining LADA in January 2021, impermissibly used that data,” Attorney General Rob Bonta stated in a news release. The confidential records, according to the criminal complaint filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, concern 11 sheriff’s deputies who are not named in the filing. “No one is above the law,” Bonta said in the release. “Public officials are called to serve the people and the state of California with integrity and honesty.” Teran’s attorney, James Spertus, told the Los Angeles Times that the case against his client is “dead on arrival,” and that the charges stem from his client “doing something within the scope of her employment.” 

KTLA 5

Alleged LA Pimp Arrested In Irvine; Human Trafficking Victim Rescued

An alleged pimp has been arrested and a suspected human trafficking victim rescued following an undercover operation at a local hotel in Irvine, according to police. Members of the Irvine Police Department's Special Investigations Unit and the Orange County Human Trafficking Task Force were dispatched to the hotel last week after receiving a report of a woman who was potentially being trafficked for commercial sex work. When the suspected pimp and woman arrived, detectives confronted the pair and took the man into custody. The woman was taken to a safe location. The suspected pimp has since been identified as 33-year-old Winston Jones from Los Angeles. He was arrested for multiple human trafficking-related charges, including pimping and pandering, according to police. 

FOX 11

15 Arrested During Multi-Million Dollar Cartel Drug Bust In Southern California

Fifteen people were arrested and $16 million worth of illegal drugs were seized during a massive cartel bust in Southern California. The operation, nicknamed “Hotline Bling,” was a multi-agency investigation targeting a Sinaloa drug trafficking network operating in the Inland Empire. The investigation began in March 2023 and ended in April 2024. It involved the Drug Enforcement Administration’s Riverside District Office, the Riverside Police Department, and assistance from the United States Postal Inspection Service. During the large-scale operation, agents seized around 376 pounds of methamphetamine, 600,000 fentanyl tablets, 37.4 pounds of fentanyl, 1.4 kilograms of cocaine, and seven firearms. The estimated street value for the narcotics is around $16 million, Riverside police said. The amount of narcotics seized during the bust prevented the distribution of more than 10 million potentially lethal doses of fentanyl within the Inland Empire and throughout the United States, officials said.

KTLA 5

BWC: Man Wounds Minnesota LEOs With Rifle Before Fatal OIS

Law enforcement body-worn camera video released Wednesday afternoon shows a man with a high-powered rifle firing several volleys of gunfire at sheriff’s deputies last week in a Minnetonka neighborhood before they took cover, returned fire and killed him. The firefight on April 10 left 28-year-old Clint Hoyhtya dead at the home where he lived, one deputy shot and wounded and another injured by shrapnel, according to the state Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA). The deputies were there with a warrant to arrest a different man, who turned out to not be there when they knocked and identified themselves before the midday gun battle erupted in the 13400 block of E. Crestwood Drive, according to the BCA. Body camera video from multiple deputies shows Christopher Heihn, Keith McNamara and Tyler Jacob knock at the door of the home for several minutes while announcing themselves, but no one answered. “He looked at me,” Heihn said. “He came do the door and looked out the window.” A man could be heard yelling from inside before deputies decided to surround the residence. “One with a gun in the back!” a deputy called shortly before shots rang out from what emergency dispatch audio revealed was an “AK variant” and they took cover.

Star Tribune

Road Rage Shootings Have Surged Over The Past Decade

Road rage shootings are on the rise across the United States as drivers increasingly turn to firearms to vent their frustrations — with often tragic consequences. Between 2014 and 2023, the number of people shot in road rage incidents surged more than 400 percent, from 92 to 481, according to a Trace analysis of data from the nonprofit Gun Violence Archive. All told, angry drivers shot 3,095 people over that decade, or nearly one every day. One in four of those people — 777 — were killed. Law enforcement agencies do not release statistics on road rage shootings as a specific category of crime. But GVA tracks incidents in which someone in a car fires at a driver or passenger in another vehicle or brandishes a gun in a threatening manner. Although not all gun-related road rage incidents make the news or are reported to police, GVA provides the most comprehensive picture of gun violence on the nation’s roads and highways. Since 2014, gun-involved road rage incidents have more than doubled, and the number of victims killed or injured has increased more than fivefold, the data shows. When we looked specifically at shootings — incidents in which either a victim or suspect was shot — the increase is even more consistent. The number of road rage shootings tracked by GVA increased by an average of 23 percent each year over the past decade. 

The Trace

About the LAPPL: Formed in 1923, the Los Angeles Police Protective League (LAPPL) represents more than 8,900 dedicated and professional sworn members of the Los Angeles Police Department. The LAPPL serves to advance the interests of LAPD officers through legislative and legal advocacy, political action and education.