James Stotler

Mistrial Declared in Sexual Battery Case Against David Hung Do, Alleged Predator Physician

Looking at a deadlocked jury, an Orange County Superior Court judge in Santa Ana declared a mistrial in the sexual battery case against Dr. David Hung Do on Thursday. Judge James Stotler set a Nov. 9 status hearing and tentative February trial date in the case that accuses the 42-year-old physician ... More >>

Disgusting Buena Park Liquor Store Robbers Claim Judge Stole Justice

Neil Deontrai Duffey and William Deshawn Cartlidge committed a brutal, senseless Buena Park liquor store robbery in August 2006, but insist that Orange County's criminal justice system robbed them of a fair trial.Duffey shot the store clerk in the head with a handgun, shot a customer entering the st ... More >>

[UPDATED with Conviction:] Alejandro Arias, Nurse Assistant, Guilty of Sex Assaults on GILF Patients

See update at the end of this post on Alejandro Arias being found guilty.Between April 1 and July 18, 2008, male nurse's assistant Alejandro Arias entered the care center rooms of two women, ages 50 and 60, under the pretense of performing legitimate medical procedures.But, according to prosecutors, ... More >>

Sandra Jessee Finally Pays For Murdering Her Placentia Husband

​The evil, pot-smoking Placentia granny who hired her son and his Orange County Target store co-worker to ambush murder her ill husband and believed she'd gotten away with it for years learned today that sometimes justice is slow but determined.It took 4,971 days to get here, but Superior Court Ju ... More >>

Jared Petrovich, Garrett Aguilar: Life In Prison for John Chamberlain Murder Trial Defendants

​Jared Petrovich and Garrett Aguilar, two of six former Theo Lacy Jail inmates charged in the Oct. 6, 2006 beating death of John Chamberlain, a Rancho Santa Margarita software engineer facing trial for possessing child pornography, were sentenced to 15 years to life in prison today. The alleged sh ... More >>

Audra M. Marino Gets a Killer Fee

[Moxley Confidential] The odd case of the accountant who made a killing in the Sandra Jessee murder trial

Miguel Guillen, Chamberlain Murder Trial Defendant, Sentenced to 20 Years to Life

OC Register pool photographMiguel Guillen shortly before being convicted of murder​Miguel Guillen, the 48-year-old former Theo Lacy Jail inmate convicted in October of the 2006 murder of fellow prisoner John Chamberlain, a Rancho Santa Margarita software engineer suspected of being a child moleste ... More >>

Sandra Jessee Murder Trial: Defiant Defendant Faces Her Prosecutor For An Ugly Collision

​Because she can't rely on beauty or wits, Sandra Jessee--the pot-smoking granny accused of shopping at Wal-Mart for an alibi while hit men she hired from Target executed her husband--knows her fate depends on whether a jury finds her credible.After two of the other three alleged conspirators took ... More >>

Sandra Jessee: Accused Murderous, Pot Smoking Granny Takes Witness Stand

Sandra Jessee: Were those tears real today?​Accused of hiring hit men to murder her husband while she shopped at Walmart and Burger King for a fake alibi, Sandra Jessee declined to take the witness stand in her first trial and saw herself and co-defendant, Thomas Aehlert, come within one vote of s ... More >>

Sandra Jessee's Murder Trial: A Rhetorical Knife Fight

[Moxley Confidential] The battle between the two lead attorneys has yet to draw sanctions from the judge

Latest Jack Jessee Murder Suspect Stayed Free Because of "Scheduling" Dispute

​Crime solving sometimes takes an extraordinary amount of time.Take the Jack Jessee murder case. A Rambo-knife wielding intruder killed Jessee in his Placentia living room in August 1998--when the biggest national news was President Bill Clinton's sticky Monica Lewinsky mess. Though police quickly ... More >>

T.J. Garrick Arrested in 13-Year-Old Jack Jessee Murder Conspiracy

​The final piece in Orange County law enforcement's relentless determination to solve a 13-year-old Placentia murder fell into place this afternoon when sheriff's homicide detectives arrested Thomas Joseph Garrick of Laguna Hills.Garrick is now locked inside the Orange County Jail without the poss ... More >>

Brett Schrauben: Confessed Hit Man with Vocabulary Woes

Schrauben: Speak slowly and use only one syllable words in his presence​"I don't know what that [word] means."That was today's answer by admitted hit man Brett Schrauben when asked by veteran public defender Derek Bercher if he'd been "altruistic" in confessing his role in the 1998 Rambo knife mur ... More >>

The Chamberlain Files

The inside story of covering—and becoming part of—the county's most disturbing jailhouse murder case

Sandra Jessee: Loved Husband Too Much To Have Hit Man Kill Him, Defense Lawyer Says

Sandra Jessee: Hired a hit man for her money?​Deja vu once again appeared today in an Orange County courtroom in hopes of officially solving a wild, $50,000 1998 hit man murder in Placentia.Three years ago, prosecutor Michael F. Murray stood before a different jury and accused Sandra Jessee and Th ... More >>

Sandra Jessee Case: How Juror Prospect Escaped Duty Today

A lone 2009 juror thwarted a Jessee conviction in first trial​Scan the faces of potential jurors waiting in an Orange County courtroom and you'll undoubtedly see people who can't hide that their brains are furiously crafting mini-speeches that will allow them to escape jury duty.This phenomena is ... More >>

[UPDATED W/Courtroom Drama] John Chamberlain Murder Trial Verdict: All Five Defendants Guilty of Second-Degree Murder

Paul Bersebach, OC Register pool photographerJared Petrovich enters the courtroom on Oct. 24​UPDATED, Oct. 26 11:42 P.M.: You could see it in the faces of the five handcuffed men as they were led into Judge James Stotler's courtroom shortly after 5:30 p.m last night. Just over 24 hours earlier, th ... More >>

[UPDATED W/PHOTOS] John Chamberlain Murder Trial: Jurors Reject First Degree Murder

​UPDATE, OCT 24, 6:10 P.M.: The jury in the case of five Theo Lacy Jail inmates accused of murdering John Chamberlain, the software engineer they suspected of being a child molester, may be hopelessly deadlocked, but they've agreed on one point: they cannot unanimously convict the defendants of fi ... More >>

John Chamberlain Murder Trial: Judge Rules to Exclude Evidence of Alleged Cover-Up

Ex-Deputy Kevin Taylor​As anyone who has followed this story already knows, John Chamberlain, a Rancho Santa Margarita software engineer arrested for possession of child pornography, was brutally assaulted at the Theo Lacy Jail in Orange by dozens of inmates who believed he was a child molester. H ... More >>

Jason Chapluk Gets All Chapluk-ed Up

One of the two sheriff's deputies on duty the night of John Chamberlain's jailhouse murder wimps out on the witness stand

John Chamberlain Murder Trial Day Three: Deputy Taylor's Partner Speaks

John Chamberlain's booking photo​You could tell that Orange County Sheriff's Deputy Jason Chapluk was nervous. Okay, maybe not as nervous as he was on that security footage from the night of Oct. 5, 2006 when he and fellow Theo Lacy Jail guard Kevin Taylor were bouncing around the guard tower insi ... More >>

The John Chamberlain Murder Trial Begins

[Moxley Confidential] Some defense lawyers claim the deputies made their clients do it

The Face of Kelly Thomas v. The Face of John Chamberlain

Chamberlain before he met his executioners​Prosecutors in the John Derek Chamberlain murder trial yesterday displayed numerous morgue photographs of the pre-trial criminal defendant who was beaten to death by other inmates inside Orange County's Theo Lacy Jail in October 2006. The pictures of Cham ... More >>

[UPDATED] Carlie Rose Attebury, Ex-El Modena High Band Teacher, Gets 16 Months for Unlawful Sex with 15-year-old Boy

​UPDATE, MARCH 4, 2:52 P.M.: Former El Modena High School band teacher Carlie Rose Attebury was sentenced today to 16 months in prison for having sex with a then-15-year-old boy who was her drum major.The 31-year-old Orange resident must also register as a sex offender for life.She was also ... More >>

Veronica Paz Gets 15 Years to Life for Using Sex to Lure Ex-Boyfriend to His Death by New Boyfriend

​What 17-year-old boy would turn down a promise of hot sex at a quiet hilltop construction site? El Modena High School wrestler Diego Gonzalez's ex-girlfriend had a new boyfriend, but 20-year-old Veronica Paz was still seeing Gonzalez on the side. They drove to an unincorporated residential area n ... More >>

Judge in Jailhouse Murder Case Failed to Disclose Conflict; DA Should Drop Case, Motions Claim

Jared Petrovich​The case of the brutal Oct. 5, 2006 murder of John Derek Chamberlain, an inmate at Theo Lacy Men's Jail who died at the hands of inmates who believed he was a child molester, is already sensational enough. Although only nine inmates have been charged in his death, both the suspects ... More >>

OC Vietnamese Gang-Related Slaying Conviction Rejected

Nguyen gets a judicial miracle​There may have been screams of joy in a California prison last night and cries of frustration inside the district attorney's office. Late yesterday afternoon, a California Court of Appeal overturned an Orange County jury's 2007 special circumstances murder convi ... More >>

Incestuous Pedophile OC Parent Loses Battle

​A Costa Mesa man--who repeatedly raped his own daughters and liked to get high school girls and boys drunk in preparation for orgies--will remain locked in prison after his legal efforts to paint his victims as liars failed today at a California Court of Appeal.  The justices found that an O ... More >>

Citizen of the Week!

At 6-foot-5 and 275 pounds, Robert Gene Butterfield is a massive 40-year-old who likes to have sex with minors. But hold on, folks--that's not the worst of his crimes. We know of Butterfield's predilection, in part, because on the night of Aug. 4, 2000, he and his wife, Charmaine, got a group of ... More >>

Citizen of the Week!

You can imagine the joy 50-year-old Anaheim tamale dealer Gregorio Gomez Echeverria felt when his daughter walked up to him in March 2001 and said, "Guess what? I'm pregnant." Well, maybe you can't. How many of us have experienced the sensation of simultaneously becoming a grandfather and a fat ... More >>

Citizen of the Week!

Veronica Paz smoked pot with and repeatedly had public sex with Diego Gonzales, a 17-year-old high school wrestling champion, on a hillside perch overlooking Orange County. Yes, it is illegal for an adult to have sex with a minor, but that’s the least of Paz’s worries. The 26-year-old Stater Br ... More >>

[Moxley Confidential] Jose Avina Gets Adult Punishment for Sex-Crime Spree He Committed at 14

OC Jury Finds Rapist, 14, Guilty

An Anaheim teenager tried as an adult for a shocking kidnapping-robbery-forced-sodomy crime spree that victimized four 12 and 13-year-old boys in 2004 was convicted this afternoon of committing 11 felonies. Jose Ignacio Avina, just 14 years old at the time of the crimes near Ball Middle School, sto ... More >>

The Thin Boo Line!

Orange Countys 31 scariest cops!