UPDATE NO. 2, MARCH 18, 6:03 A.M.: James Robertson Fraser's arraignment was rescheduled Tuesday for April 10, and the 31-year-old Garden Grove resident's bail was halved to $1 million. He was charged the previous day with murder and a sentencing enhancement for the use of a deadly weapon in the fatal stabbing of 26-year-old Pedro Francisco Toro in Anaheim last Wednesday. Meanwhile, City News Service reports that Fraser has a laundry list of prior strike convictions that will increase his punishment if he is convicted of Toro's murder.
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Fraser has prior strike convictions in 2005 for assault with a deadly weapon (a motor vehicle), domestic violence, evading police, possession of a gun with a prior conviction, all felonies, as well as misdemeanors for hit-and-run with property damage and unlawful entry of a residence. He was again convicted of assault with a deadly weapon with force likely to produce great bodily injury in 2009, when he also pleaded guilty to felony evading police and misdemeanor hit-and-run with property damage, resisting arrest, driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs and being under the influence of a controlled substance. The motive for last week's stabbing remains unknown.
UPDATE NO 1, MARCH 13, 9:03 A.M.: The Anaheim Police Department has made an arrest in the murder of Pedro Francisco Toro, the 26-year-old found suffering from fatal stab wounds in a vehicle that had been involved in a police chase Wednesday morning. James Robertson Fraser turned himself in at the Anaheim Police Department Headquarters Thursday evening, hours after homicide detectives obtained a warrant for the 31-year-old Garden Grove resident's arrest, according to police Lt. Eric Trapp. Fraser was booked into the Anaheim city jail on suspicion of murder and held in lieu of $1 million bail, Trapp said. No motive has been revealed for the slaying of Toro, who was found in the vehicle's passenger seat suffering from a laceration to the neck and bleeding profusely.
ORIGINAL POST, MARCH 12, 6:08 A.M.: A short police chase through the streets of Anaheim Wednesday morning led to the discovery in the pursued vehicle's passenger seat of a man who had been fatally stabbed.
A cop on patrol spotted a vehicle traveling erratically near Loara Street and Broadway about 8:40 a.m. Wednesday, when an attempt was made to pull the driver over, Anaheim Police Lt. Eric Trapp told City News Service.
The female driver did not pull over until Loara and Lincoln Avenue, where the officer discovered the male stabbing victim she was trying to take to the hospital, Trapp said.
The victim, who is 26, was taken by paramedics to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead, Trapp said. Police know his identity but were waiting to notify his next of kin. The lady driver's relationship to the victim has not been disclosed.
The resulting investigation led cops back to a residence in the 1500 block of Edithia Avenue, where the occupants were taken to police headquarters for questioning, said Trapp, who added detectives believe the stabbing happened at the home.
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OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.