Man charged in killing of 21-year-old transgender woman, rape of 11-year-old girl
An Inglewood man was charged Monday with shooting a 21-year-old transgender woman during a robbery and forcing an 11-year-old girl into prostitution, according to the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office.
Robert James Spells, a 30-year-old black man, was charged with one count of capital murder with a special circumstance of killing someone during a robbery. Spells, who is due in court Monday, was also charged with six other felonies including second-degree robbery, offering the child to men for sex and two counts of aggravated sexual assault of a child.
On Dec. 3, 2014, Deshawnda “Ta-Ta” Sanchez called 911 at about 4 a.m. stating she had been robbed and assaulted. While pounding on a door for help in the 6100 block of S. Wilton Place, she was shot. Police have not specified what was stolen from Sanchez but said her call was key in identifying Spells as the suspect.
DNA …
Olugbenga Adedato Oni, 34
Olugbenga Adedato Oni, a 34-year-old black man, was fatally stabbed Sunday, March 1, in the 6000 block of North Figueroa Street in Highland Park, according to Los Angeles County coroner’s records.
About 9:30 p.m., Los Angeles police officers responded to a call of a death investigation in the area and found Oni on the ground in an alley with a stab wound, according to a department news release.
Oni was pronounced dead at the scene at 9:35 p.m., said Ed Winter, assistant chief of investigations for the coroner’s office.
Anyone with information is asked to call Northeast Division detectives at (323) 344-5731. Those who wish to remain anonymous can call Crime Stoppers at (800) 222-8477.
Jonathan Watts, 42
Jonathan Watts, a 42-year-old black man, was fatally shot Sunday, March 1 in the 3000 block of Battram Street in Pomona, according to the Los Angeles County coroner's office.
Watts was barbecuing in Willie White Park about 3:20 p.m. when a silver or gray-colored four-door sedan drove up and began firing at people, investigators said in a news release.
Watts was shot once in the abdomen, according to the coroner's office. He was taken to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead during surgery at 6:18 p.m.
A second shooting victim, a 16-year-old male from Las Vegas, was also treated at the hospital for non-life-threatening gunshot wounds, police said.
Anyone with information about the shooting is asked to call the Pomona Police Department at (909) 620-2085. Those wishing to remain anonymous can call Crime Stoppers at (800) 222-8477.
Najat Zuniga Pennell, 41
Najat Zuniga Pennell, a 41-year-old black woman, was found fatally stabbed Saturday, Feb. 28, in the 4000 block of Wilshire Boulevard in Windsor Square, according to Los Angeles County coroner’s records.
About 9 a.m., a man and a woman found Pennell motionless on a bus bench with what appeared to be blood on her face, said LAPD Det. John Skaggs.
Pennell was pronounced dead at 9:23 a.m. at the scene, said Ed Winter, assistant chief of investigations for the coroner’s office.
Skaggs said that the woman was a transient and had only recently been seen in the area. Detectives are looking for witnesses.
Anyone with information is asked to call West Bureau homicide detectives at (213) 382-9470. Those who wish to remain anonymous can call Crime Stoppers at (800) 222-8477.
James Eugene Hosch, 46
Matthew A. Hanna, 34
Matthew A. Hanna, a 34-year-old white man, was found dead Feb. 28, 2015, in the 16000 block of Gilmore Street in Lake Balboa, according to Los Angeles County coroner's records.
Hanna's decomposed body was discovered by his parents in his home with multiple gunshot wounds to the torso, according to a news release from the Los Angeles Police Department. Hanna had been shot one or more days before the discovery, the release said.
He was pronounced dead at the scene at 4:42 p.m., according to coroner's records.
The Los Angeles County district attorney's office issued a murder warrant for one of Hanna's acquaintances, Donte Daley, 39, accusing him of the killing.
U.S. Marshals were working with the LAPD to try to find the suspect, who was reported to be out of state, according to an LAPD release.
Daley was arrested on June 3 in Las Vegas after he allegedly crossed …
Man convicted of racially motivated murder, attempted murder of police officer
A Long Beach man who yelled racial slurs at three black men sitting on a bus bench before pulling out a gun and opening fire then later shooting at a police officer was convicted in February of murder and attempted murder, according to the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office.
A jury deliberated for one day before finding Darryl Harnish, a 67-year-old white man, guilty of killing 37-year-old Terry Alexander. The jury also convicted Harnish on Feb.11 of one count of assault with a semiautomatic firearm of Arthur Vega, a Long Beach police officer.
Shortly after midnight on April 19, 2012, Harnish yelled racial slurs and threatened to kill three black men sitting on a bus bench at Pacific Avenue and Pacific Coast Highway in Long Beach, according to a statement from prosecutors.
Alexander, who was sitting on the bench, rode his bike toward Harnish, who opened fire. Alexander was …
Majesty Lyles, 1
Majesty Lyles, a 1-year-old black male, died Friday, Feb. 27, after sustaining blunt force trauma in Huntington Park, according to Los Angeles County coroner's records.
Weekends are the deadliest time for Latinos
The first to be killed on the weekend of Dec. 20 was 17-year-old Erik Sainz, who was shot in the driveway of a West Puente Valley home that Friday afternoon. Then came Matthew Albert Garcia, 26, who was found dead on the sidewalk in Rosemead about an hour before sunrise on Saturday.
Before the weekend ended, two more people — a 37-year-old man and a 16-year-old youth — would be shot to death.
What each victim that weekend had in common was ethnicity.
The average Latino homicide victim in Los Angeles County is 15% more likely to be killed on a weekend — defined here as Friday, Saturday or Sunday — than victims of other races or ethnicities, according to a Times analysis of the more than 13,000 Los Angeles County homicides recorded from 2000 to 2014 in the Homicide Report.
Phillips Lewis McCain, 61
Jennifer Oda, 31
Jennifer Oda, a 31-year-old Asian female, died Wednesday, Feb. 25, after being shot in Beverly Hills, according to Los Angeles County coroner's records.
Tustin man sentenced to 50 years to life in prison for killing estranged wife
A Tustin man who fatally shot his estranged wife in the parking lot of a Montebello restaurant where she worked was sentenced Feb. 23 to 50 years to life in prison, according to the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office.
Arthur Andrew Andrade Jr., a 31-year-old Latino, on Monday was denied a new motion for a trial. A judge also denied a request to reduce the jury’s verdict from first-degree murder to manslaughter or second-degree murder.
In December, Andrade was convicted of the March 16, 2013 murder of his estranged wife, Esperanza Soria. Soria was shot six times as she sat in her car in the parking lot of a restaurant.
Jermaine Malone, 37
Jermaine Malone, a 37-year-old black man, died Sunday, Feb. 22, five days after he was shot in the 1600 block of West 54th Street in Harvard Park, according to Los Angeles County coroner’s records.
About 12:45 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 17, Malone was standing in front of a home when a gunman walked up to him and opened fire, LAPD Det. Dave Garrido said.
Malone was taken to a hospital where he was pronounced dead at 12:28 a.m. Feb. 22, said Ed Winter, assistant chief of investigations for the coroner’s office.
Anyone with information is asked to call the Criminal Gang Homicide Division at (213) 485-4341. Those who wish to remain anonymous can call Crime Stoppers at (800) 222-8477.
Tramel Laqune Kerl, 39
Tramel Laqune Kerl, a 39-year-old black man, was shot and killed Saturday, Feb. 21 in the 9900 block of South Budlong Avenue in Westmont, according to Los Angeles County coroner’s records.
About 1:43 a.m., two black men were walking on the north side of West 99th Street when they approached a light-colored parked sedan across the street and opened fire, said Lt. Eddie Hernandez of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.
Kerl, who was sitting in the driver’s seat, was wounded and pronounced dead at 1:54 a.m. at the scene, said Ed Winter, assistant chief of investigations for the coroner’s office.
The men then ran north on South Budlong Avenue, Hernandez said.
“Everyone is telling us that no words were exchanged,” Hernandez said.
Investigators are trying to determine a motive in the shooting.
Anyone with information is asked to call the Sheriff’s Department Homicide Bureau at (323) 890-5500. Those …