Capital Punishment

Itzcoatl "Izzy" Ocampo, Alleged Serial Killer of 6, Has Death-Penalty Trial Pushed to May 2014

The trial of suspected serial killer Itzcoatl "Izzy" Ocampo likely will not begin until May 2014.While the 25-year-old Yorba Linda man accused of fatally stabbing a mother, her adult son and four homeless men has a Nov. 1 court date, his attorneys asked an Orange County Superior Court judge today fo ... More >>

Jason Balcom Gets Death Penalty Nod from Second Jury for Grisly 1988 Costa Mesa Murder

A Santa Ana jury today recommended the death penalty today for a man who'd been serving a 30- to 50-year sentence for rape in Michigan when he was linked to the 1988 assault and murder of a pregnant, 22-year-old newlywed in Costa Mesa.Jason Balcom, 42, is now set to be formally sentenced by Judge Fr ... More >>

Rodney Alcala, Southern California Serial Killer, Gets 25 Years to Life for New York Slayings

Serial killer Rodney Alcala, who was sentenced to death in an Orange County courtroom in 2010, was sentenced today to 25 years to life for two murders in New York during the 1970s. Alcala pleaded guilty in the Big Apple last month, explaining to the judge that would allow him to be returned to Calif ... More >>

Rodney Alcala, Serial Killer Convicted in Orange County, Pleads Guilty to 2 Murders in New York

Rodney Alcala vehemently denied killing Robin Samsoe as he defended himself in the trial that preceded his 2010 conviction for slaying the Huntington Beach 12-year-old and four young Los Angeles County women in the 1970s.But the serial killer who has been sentenced to death three times in California ... More >>

Rodney Alcala Can't Block New York Extradition

The California Supreme Court Wednesday denied serial killer Rodney Alcala's request to block his extradition to New York, where he is accused of murdering two young women in the 1970s.Prosecutors in New York City filed extradition papers after Alcala, who is sitting on California's death row, was co ... More >>

John Briggs, Former OC State Assemblymember/Senator, Still an Asshole After All These Years

I about spit my morning Makers when I came across a New York Times article extolling the virtuous of a regretful John Briggs. Why, had the notorious ex-OC state senator/assemblymember, who authored 1978's Neanderthalic Proposition 7 (forever remembered as the Briggs Amendment that sought to ban homo ... More >>

[UPDATED with Penalty Phase Mistrial:] Jason Balcom Guilty of Newlywed Woman's Rape and Murder

​UPDATE, MARCH 28, 12:56 P.M.: Though a jury earlier this month convicted Jason Balcom for the rape and murder of a newly arrived bride in Costa Mesa in 1988, the panel deadlocked 10-2 on whether the 42-year-old Michigan rape convict deserves the death penalty.Superior Court Judge Francisco Brisen ... More >>

29-year-old Woman, OC Homicide No. 8: Sex Offender Charles Patrick Drew Held in Murder by Brutal Sex Assault

​Before we move on to a truly ugly crime, I believe we can all agree that unless Moxley comes up with a better "winner," we have this week's Ugly Police Mugshot of the Week.Transient, two-striker and registered sex offender Charles Patrick Drew, 62, is accused of murdering a 29-year-old woman dur ... More >>

California Supreme Court Okays Death Penalty for OC Serial Bandit

​What kind of Uzi-toting scumbag robs a Hallmark store? Southern California banks? Restaurants? Florists? Pet grooming shops? Nail salons? Pharmacies? And grocery stores? Glad you asked because I have the answer: career criminal John Clyde Abel. But, barring saving action by the U.S. Supreme C ... More >>

Robert Eugene Vasquez Indicted for Near- Decapitation Murder and Second Attack

​A San Juan Capistrano man faces an arraignment hearing Wednesday after the Orange County Grand Jury indicted the 34-year-old on charges of fatally stabbing--and nearly decapitating--his neighbor and assaulting a second two days later.Robert Eugene Vasquez could get the death penalty for the Dec. ... More >>

Tonight's Death Row Dinner Course At The Playground: A Cool $150

​Have you been following the Death Row Meal at Playground? It's a dinner of things the chefs would eat as their last meal, one course at a time, every Friday.I ate the first one--a huge plate of Benton's country ham served with two large pieces of pa amb tomàquet (toasted bread smeared with tomat ... More >>

[UPDATED with Plea:] Scott Evans Dekraai, Mass Murder Suspect, Indicted by Grand Jury

​UPDATE, JAN. 18, 3:38 P.M.: Accused mass killer Scott Evans Dekraai pleaded not guilty to eight murder counts at today's arraignment hearing in Santa Ana. If a feeling of deja vu just washed over you, fret not; Dekraai also pleaded not guilty at an arraignment hearing last year. Today's arraignme ... More >>

[UPDATED with Scott Evans Dekraai Insanity Plea Predicted:] 6 Women and 2 Men, OC Homicides Nos. 45-52: Massacred at Beauty Salon

​UPDATE, NOV. 29, 12:30 P.M.: During today's arraignment hearing, where Scott Evans Dekraai pleaded not guilty to murdering eight people and critically injuring a ninth, Deputy Public Defender Scott Sanders objected to press photographers being in the courtroom, saying this kind of media coverage ... More >>

Rodney Alcala Wants to Stay on Death Row

​Serial killer Rodney Alcala has been behind bars since his arrest in 1979 for the murder of 12-year-old Robin Samsoe of Huntington Beach. Through his original convictions, overturned convictions and re-affirmed convictions, the 68-year-old has remained incarcerated in California. Against characte ... More >>

Dennis Koire, OC Homicide No. 54: Succumbs to Injuries From Valentine's Day 2010 Shooting

Courtesy of OCDAPasquel Raul Loera​Fifty-year-old Dennis Koire was in a coma for the 13 months after he was shot in the head on Feb. 14, 2010. The Westminster man succumbed to his injuries this past March.In announcing the death penalty will be sought for Pasqual Raul Loera, who is also accused of ... More >>

Andrew Urdiales, Camp Pendleton Serial Killer, and Pasqual Raul Loera, Accused Double-Murderer of Westminster Couple, Both Face the Death Penalty

Andre Urdiales​The Orange County District Attorney's office announced today it will seek the death penalty for two men: Navy deserter Pasqual Raul Loera, who allegedly slayed a Westminster couple under the pretense of buying their car on Valentine's Day 2010, and Camp Pendleton serial killer Andre ... More >>

[UPDATED with OC Public Defender Getting Dekraai Case:] 6 Women and 2 Men, OC Homicides Nos. 45-52: Massacred at Beauty Salon

​UPDATE, OCT. 24, 3:05 P.M.: Orange County Superior Court Judge Erick L. Larsh this afternoon assigned the defense of Scott Evans Dekraai to the Orange County Public Defender's office. The lead attorney (at taxpayers' dime) will now be senior Deputy Public Defender Scott Sanders. Dekraai's origin ... More >>

Zombie Flash Mob in Huntington Beach Tonight

​Zombies are going to be at the Huntington Beach Art Walk tonight--but don't worry, they're not eating your brains. They're just going to dance to Michael Jackson's "Thriller" with whoever else wants to join them. A community flash mob will be performing a routine choreographed by students from ... More >>

Andrew Urdiales, Serial Killer, Extradited to OC For Killing Saddleback College Student Robbin Brandley

Andrew Urdiales​More than 25 years after he allegedly stabbed Saddleback College drama student Robbin Brandley 41 times in an unlit campus parking lot, Andrew Urdiales is finally on his way to Orange County to face trial for her murder. Urdiales, 47, who was the subject of a Nov. 2007 OC Weekly fe ... More >>

No iPhone 5 vs. Tupac's Real Killer: Which News is Bigger Today?

​So now that everyone is disappointed that Apple didn't introduce the iPhone 5 and instead introduced a version of the iPhone 4 with a better camera, we turn our attention to our sister paper LA Weekly's big news today: that Tupac Shakur was ordered killed by Sean Combs, then known as Puff Daddy, ... More >>

Rodney Alcala's Head Examined on TV Tonight

I.D.​It's all Rodney Alcala, all the time on tonight's True Crime with Aphrodite Jones, a weekly program on cable TV's I.D. (Investigation Discovery) channel.The show will attempt to get inside the mind of the serial killer who was convicted in March 2010 and returned to Death Row for the murder o ... More >>

Anthony Darnell Wade to Face Death Penalty in Brutal Rape, Torture, Murder of 84-Year-Old Widow

​Anthony Darnell Wade is accused of breaking into a sleeping Bessie Whyman's Paradise Road home in Anaheim on Jan. 10, 2010, and going on to bind the 84-year-old widow's hands and feet, repeatedly punch and kick her, brutally rape her, torture her and stab her numerous times with a kitchen knife t ... More >>

[UPDATED Further Details About Murder Investigation from KCBS] Notorious B.I.G. Murder Case Reopened

Myspace.com​UPDATE, 4 A.M.,Feb. 14: On CBS 2 News at 11 after the Grammy broadcast last night, KCBS featured a report on the newly-hot Wallace murder. Former LAPD robbery/homicide detective Russell Poole claims that he has a jailhouse source implicating both David Mack (who, according to court doc ... More >>

Rapist/Killer Edward Patrick Morgan Wins Supreme Court Point

Eddie Morgan​You've probably never heard of Edward Patrick Morgan, a onetime La Palma and Anaheim resident who charmed his way into the lives of awestruck young Orange County women with smooth talk, model good looks, perfect hair and a fat-free ripped 5-foot-8, 200-pound physique.But Morgan is a m ... More >>

Juri "Julie" Kibuishi Would Do Anything for a Friend, Say Murder Victim's Parents, Brother

​Julie Kibuishi loved music, fashion and her family, but nothing gave the 23-year-old Orange County High School of the Arts graduate more pleasure than hanging out with friends, her parents and one brother related in a tearful and impromptu meeting with local media this morning.Indeed, Julie, who ... More >>

[UPDATED:] Does Ruling Doom Red Light Cameras?

​UPDATE: As the attorney in the post below argues a court ruling may doom red-light cameras statewide, they may be permanently banned in Anaheim by November following a City Council vote Tuesday night. The Orange County Register has the scoop. A Huntington Beach attorney believes a new appellate c ... More >>

Human Rights: Law, Religion and Gender

Irvine Barclay Theatre

Jason Russell Richardson's Death Penalty Trial Begins Today

Jason Russell Richardson​The death penalty trial for a man accused of the 2007 killing of the manager of a Home Depot in Tustin is scheduled to begin in less than an hour.Opening statements are to be heard beginning at 9:30 a.m. at the Central Justice Center in Santa Ana, where Jason Russell Richa ... More >>

Rodney Alcala Death Sentence Confirmed by Judge. Is Third Time a Charm?

Robin Samsoe, R.I.P.​Orange County Superior Court Judge Francisco Briseno handed down the maximum punishment--death--for serial killer Rodney Alcala after friends of relatives of his known murder victims made statements to the court. It was the third time in three decades that Alcala got the death ... More >>

The Exonerated

The Expo Center

Rodney Alcala's Murderous Romp Through Polite Society Brings Him to an Orange County Courtroom Again

And You Thought You Had Daddy Issues!

​A 56-year-old man who used to call San Clemente home has been indicted for allegedly torturing, repeatedly shooting and suffocating to death his 21-year-old daughter, whose body he is accused of having wrapped in several layers of plastic and hidden in his RV's freezer. She was murdered in Decemb ... More >>

Letters From OC Weekly Readers

Musical Advent Calendar: Snoop Doggy Dogg, et al, 'Santa Claus Goes Straight to the Ghetto'

Death Row Records--co-founded by Dr. Dre and Suge Knight in 1991--was, of course, incredibly influential in the world of west coast rap in the early '90s. And incredibly controversial.But not everything released on the label was quite as provocative as say, "Deep Cover." There was also 1996's Christ ... More >>

Good Works

Mike Farrell

How Many Public Enemy Number One Death Squaders Can You Squeeze Onto Death Row?

Billy Joe Johnson, Orange County's most infamous white supremacist and killer, inched closer this week to San Quentin State Prison's Death Row. Deputy District Attorney Ebrahim Baytieh charged Johnson (pictured) with the lying-in-wait 2002 murder of a fellow Public Enemy Number One (PENI) Death Squ ... More >>

Spitzer's Penal Problems

There are rumblings of reform coming from Sacramento. Reforms aimed at starting to straighten out the state's dysfunctional prison system. The Los Angeles Times reports, "the Senate's top Democrats on Thursday moved toward reforming California's byzantine criminal sentencing system." Unveiling leg ... More >>

Diary of a Mad County

Dec. 13-Dec. 19

The Year in Letters

You know who else had lots of supporters? Ted Bundy

'When I Read the Article, I Wanted to Kill Myself.'

HITS!

No Justice, No Peace of Mind

Parents have dim hopes sons killer will be brought to trialeven though cops know where alleged murderer is

The Year the Music Died

First They Came for the Communists . . .

Gordon Dillow Is A Hack

A new game from OC Weekly!

Manila Enveloped in Oklahoma Bombing Case

The Shock is Off

Up in Smoke asks and answers: What happens to rap when its hard edge is draped with a little glitz?

This weeks featured NFL playoff game: Miami Dolphins (9-7) vs. Jacksonville Jaguars (14-2

Not Angry No More

Warren G chills

Good News: Youre Unlikely to Die in a Bloody Rampage!

The Reg says chill, the DA says kill

Snoop Doggy Dad

Vernall Varnado rides shotgun on his son's celebrity