In grisly case that D.A. Gascón said he 'lost sleep' over, teen suspect won't be tried as adult

A teenager accused of gunning down his 16-year-old girlfriend and her sister before setting their Westchester apartment on fire in 2018 will not be tried as an adult, bringing an end to one of the most controversial cases of the early part of Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. George Gascón's time in office.

Los Angeles Times

Crips Gang Member Sentenced To 60 Years In Prison In Murder Of Nipsey Hussle

A Crips gang member was sentenced to at least 60 years in prison Wednesday for killing beloved rapper Nipsey Hussle outside his Crenshaw clothing store in 2019. Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge H. Clay Jacke sentenced Eric Holder Jr. to 25 years to life in state prison for murdering Hussle and an additional 25 years to life based on a sentencing enhancement because he used a gun. Holder must serve an additional 10 years in prison on assault convictions for shooting two other men who were with Hussle the day of the killing, Jacke said. Holder, 33, was on a date with a woman who would become his unwitting getaway driver on March 31, 2019, when he approached Hussle in front of the Marathon Clothing store near Slauson Avenue and Crenshaw Boulevard. The two had a brief conversation, but Holder returned minutes later with two handguns and opened fire in the middle of the parking lot, killing Hussle, whose legal name was Ermias Asghedom, and wounding two other men nearby.

Los Angeles Times

Man Accused Of Killing Beloved LA Bishop Charged With Murder

The man accused of shooting to death a beloved Catholic bishop was charged Wednesday with one count of murder. Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón said his office also filed a special allegation that Carlos Medina used a gun to kill Auxiliary Bishop David O’Connell at the clergyman’s Hacienda Heights home. Medina faces up to 35 years to life in prison if convicted, Gascón said. “This was a brutal act of violence against a person who’s dedicated a life to making our neighborhoods safer, healthier, and always serving with love and compassion,” he said. Police previously said Medina was 65, but the DA's office on Wednesday placed his age at 62. Medina admitted the crime to investigators, and police recovered the gun they believe he used during the slaying, according to the DA. Additionally, evidence including video placed Medina at the scene of the crime, Gascón said.

NBC 4

22-Year-Old Man Arrested For Pair Of Armed Robberies In Van Nuys

Authorities have arrested a man who they believe is connected to a pair of armed robberies that occurred in Van Nuys in recent days. The initial incident was reported at around 9:15 p.m. Tuesday evening, when Los Angeles Police Department officers received a call of an armed robbery at a store located in the 14900 block of Vanowen Street, a statement said. The suspect allegedly entered the store and demanded money from the clerk, at one point firing a round from a loaded 9mm firearm into the floor of the store. The bullet ricocheted and struck the clerk, causing a "minor injury," according to police. LAPD officers located the suspect, identified as 22-year-old Dennis Gomez, after a resident in Van Nuys waved down police after the incident occurred. They were involved in a brief foot pursuit that ended in officers arresting Gomez and recovering the firearm and ammunition.

CBS 2

Woman Missing Since Feb. 13 Reported Missing

A 45-year old woman was reported missing Wednesday after last being seen in the Lafayette Square neighborhood. Adela Bueno-Avalos was last seen at 1:30 p.m. on Feb. 13 in the 1600 block of South Gramercy Place, near Venice Boulevard, according to the Los Angeles Police Department. Bueno-Avalos is Latina, 5 feet, 3 inches tall, weighs 200 pounds, has black hair and brown eyes. She was last seen wearing a black hooded sweater, pink, brown and white leggings, pink-framed glasses and black non-slip Vans. Anyone who has seen Bueno-Avalos or knows of her whereabouts was asked to call the LAPD’s Missing Persons Unit at 213-996-1800. During non-business hours and on weekends, calls should be made to 213- 972-2971 or 877-527-3247. Anonymous calls can be made to Crime Stoppers at 800-222-8477 or information sent to lacrimestoppers.org.

MyNewsLA

Sentencing Set For Ex-Film Producer Harvey Weinstein In Sexual Assault Case

Sentencing is set Thursday for former film producer Harvey Weinstein, who was convicted of sexually assaulting a model-actress in a Los Angeles hotel room about a decade ago. Superior Court Judge Lisa B. Lench is expected to first hear the defense’s motion for either a new trial or a reduction of the verdict. Defense attorneys argued in their court filing that evidence involving Jane Doe No. 1 — the victim in the three counts on which he was convicted — was wrongly excluded from the trial and that the jury was not properly instructed. Weinstein is facing up to 24 years in state prison in connection with the three counts on which he was convicted. Deputy District Attorneys Paul Thompson and Marlene Martinez wrote in a court filing last week that Weinstein is serving a 23-year prison sentence for his convictions for sexually assaulting two women in New York and called his attack on Jane Doe No. 1 “part of a larger, decades-long pattern.” The prosecutors are asking that the sentence be run consecutively with his case in New York.

MyNewsLA

Watch: Thief Jacks Up Car And Saws Off Catalytic Converter In Driveway Of SoCal Home

A newly installed security camera captured the swift theft of a catalytic converter from a car in the driveway of a San Jacinto home. The video showed a man use a jack to raise a Honda Accord owned by a Riverside County woman who said the car has been targeted three times by catalytic converter thieves since September. The thieves were unable to steal the exhaust emission control device in previous attempts, but left her with costly repairs. Ashley, who asked that her last name not be used, said the blue 2004 Accord has a special place in her heart. "We have other vehicles but it's my baby," she said. "My first brand new vehicle and my kids all learned to how to drive on it." The series of theft attempts convinced Ashley and her husband to install a security camera pointed toward the Accord in the driveway. Around 9 a.m. Monday, the couple was out of town when they saw a man jacking up the Accord and crawling underneath with a mechanical saw.

NBC 4

7 People Arrested In 2020 Killing Of 15-Year-Old Boy In California Park

Seven people between the ages of 16 and 51 have been arrested in connection with the fatal shooting of a teen boy in a central California park two years ago, authorities announced Wednesday. Fifteen-year-old Justin Molina was was shot once on Dec. 13, 2020, in Visalia’s Ruiz Park and died at a hospital a week later. Tips from the public helped investigators with the Visalia Police Department, the Tulare County Sheriff’s Office and the California Department of Justice identify the suspects, law enforcement officials said. Officers on Tuesday executed six search warrants, arresting six men and women and one juvenile, while seizing several weapons, the police department said in a statement.A 20-year-old man is charged with homicide and the others face various charges including accessory to homicide, conspiracy and obstructing an officer, police said.

Los Angeles Daily News

Man Convicted Of Shooting Iowa Deputy 7 Times During Robbery In 2021

A Chicago man was convicted Tuesday of shooting and seriously wounding an Iowa sheriff's deputy during a robbery at a convenience store in 2021. Stanley Donahue, 38, was convicted of several charges, including attempted murder, stemming from the shooting in Coggon, a town about 20 miles (32 kilometers) northeast of Cedar Rapids. Prosecutors said Donahue robbed two employees at a Casey's store and confined them in a cooler before shooting Linn County deputy Will Halverson seven times on June 20, 2021. Halverson was seriously injured but has returned to work. He testified during the trial that Donahue was the man who shot him. As he was being led from the courtroom on Tuesday, Donahue looked at Halverson and his family and said “It should of been worse than what it was," followed by an expletive, The Cedar Rapids Gazette reported. Donahue fled after the shooting and was later arrested after a more than 12-hour manhunt that ended when he was spotted by a television news crew.

Associated Press

Amateur Websleuth Groups: A Rapidly Evolving Risk For Police

Amateur sleuthing has been around since the advent of the “penny dreadful” stories in the 19th century. However, with the growth of social media (and the significant platform it provides for open collaboration), this natural element of human curiosity has taken a turn into the investigation of violent crime. A quick Google Scholar search on this phenomenon yields a surprising result: Very little research exists. Law enforcement agencies have long relied on community member tips, and it’s not uncommon for police leaders to ask bystanders to submit cell phone or other video footage following major incidents. Theoretically, amateur websleuth groups are an extension of this “crowd-sourcing” of evidence collection. Certainly, websleuthing can produce valuable leads that can aid the investigative process. But as websleuth groups become more aggressive and prone to conspiracy theories, they can also create chaos for law enforcement agencies, jeopardizing the integrity of investigations and reducing community member trust in the criminal justice system. 

PoliceOne

LA County Reports 11 More COVID-Related Deaths

Los Angeles County reported 11 new COVID-19 deaths and the number of virus-positive hospital patients fell below 700 in its latest data. The 11 new fatalities gave the county an overall death toll from the pandemic of 35,614. The majority of people who die with COVID-19 are elderly or have an underlying health condition such as diabetes, heart disease or hypertension. Meanwhile, the county reported 1,419 new COVID infections Wednesday, lifting the cumulative total from throughout the pandemic to 3,698,481. The daily case numbers released by the county are undercounts of actual virus activity in the county, due to people who use at-home tests and don’t report the results, and others who don’t test at all. The seven-day average daily rate of people testing positive for the virus was 6.8% as of Wednesday, roughly the same as the past week.

MyNewsLA

Rare Blizzard Warning Issued For LA County Mountains. See The SoCal Storm Timeline

A blizzard warning will go into effect Friday for Los Angeles County mountains as back-to-back cold storms move into Southern California. The late February storms will bring unprecedented snowfall, rain, powerful winds and well below-normal temperatures. The first of the two storms arrived Wednesday with a second stronger system on track to move in Thursday. "The heaviest snow-making days are going to be Thursday and Friday, and here's the reason why," said NBC4 forecaster Belen De Leon. "(On Thursday), another storm is going to slide behind this one and take a more westerly route over the ocean water. This system already has some cold air. It's going to tap into an atmospheric river with tropical moisture and channel that right into Southern California." Atmospheric rivers are plumes of moisture in the sky over the ocean. Once storms draw moisture from the rivers in the sky, they're capable of producing long periods of significant precipitation. The weather phenomenon is behind some of the wettest winters on record in California.

NBC 4

LA County Expected To Activate Emergency Winter Motel Voucher Program

Los Angeles County is expected to enact its emergency winter motel voucher program to aid with the monumental task of housing as many people as they can as an especially frigid storm is expected to hit Southern California. Already on Tuesday night, the temperature seemed to quickly drop forcing 48-year-old homeless resident Drew to endure a cold night in the Pasadena park he's called home for years. "Well, I cover up best I can and just gonna have to deal with it," he said. "It's not fun, I'll tell you that. It's hard." Drew has not been able to get a voucher from the City of Pasadena's motel voucher program, which could be challenging according to a local outreach volunteer. "Just to be enrolled into the motel rooms, they have to go, physically, to a location and it's only on Thursday evening," said volunteer Jo Long. "One person I was trying to help get into the motel rooms just couldn't physically get there because they have belongings that they didn't want to leave. It was late at night, they were already setting up for the night and so it's a big gamble for them to leave their belongings and go to a location that they don't know."

CBS 2

LA Council Explores Creating Climate Budget For City

The City Council voted today to explore creating a climate budget for Los Angeles. Citing a need to align the city's budget with its climate goals, the council approved a motion filed by Council President Paul Krekorian that seeks reliable data regarding greenhouse gas emissions to help Los Angeles reach its goal of achieving carbon neutrality by 2045. The motion asked for the Bureau of Sanitation and the Environment to present a greenhouse gas emissions inventory to the council, which would be used to inform the city's budget process. It also sought to establish a climate impact team to support the preparation of investment plans. Other major cities, such as Barcelona, Montreal and Oslo have some form of climate budget, according to the motion. Los Angeles also tracks expenditures regarding homelessness with a dedicated team and the Homelessness Non-Departmental Schedule, the motion states.

Westside Current

About the LAPPL: Formed in 1923, the Los Angeles Police Protective League (LAPPL) represents more than 9,200 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.