Subject: Murder and Homicide

• Assassins

  March 19, 2009

• Fiction Book Group

  March 12, 2009

• Killing in Long Beach

  The last time the combination of Long Beach and crime was featured in this space, some of the area's dimmer predatory perverts were doing their part to help NBC's ratings. Now comes better news. According to the Long Beach Press-Telegram, crime is down in LBC, despite what you might see on Dateline NBC's hidden cameras. City crime rates dropped for the fourth consecutive year, including the lowest number of murders - 41 - since Long Beach began tracking crime statistics more than 30 years ago

  March 19, 2007

• Charge of the Register Lite Brigade

  Since Ronald Reagan turned it into a bloodsport, most journalists in this country are routinely assumed to carry a liberal media bias ("Guilty!"). One place you'll often see that bandied about is in the Orange County Register--not directed at its own fleet of word monkeys, oh no, no, no, but journos anywhere and everywhere else. The way the old saw goes is most reporters cannot be trusted to report The Truth because they harbor biases that slant The Truth a certain way. Which is why we were ti

  June 22, 2006

• Thursday's Headlines

  The Shakespearean plot thickens: A 22-year-old Muslim man who was rejected by the devoutly Hindu family of his UC Irvine-attending ex-girlfriend has been charged with the murder of her father and sister, as well as the attempted murder of her mother. (LAT, OCR) Death knell for film commission: Orange County supervisors ruled to kill off the county film commission, but decided to let the tourism council live. Both were "on the chopping block for years," reports the Times. Goofy Hat Bandit suspe

  June 14, 2007

• Friday's Headlines

  Immigration reform bill tanks: Local politicians applauded the death of a bill that would have legalized millions of immigrants, reports the Daily Pilot. Newport OIS: Newport Beach police fatally shot a man suspected of driving drunk after a three-mile chase this morning. iPhone madness: The Register's in-house gadget nut has been in line outside an Irvine Apple store overnight. The iPhone goes on sale at 6 p.m. Friday. Today in court: Arraignment is set for Guillermo Rodriguez Sr. and his son,

  June 29, 2007

• Mom as Murder Accomplice?

  Hopefully mothers trying to be good to their sons won't follow in Eva Daley's footsteps. The Long Beach mom was recently arrested for allegedly driving her son and a group of friends to a park on June 25, so that they could retaliate against a 13-year-old boy over an earlier dispute, reports the LA Times. The boy, Jose Cano, was fatally stabbed when the group of teens allegedly descended on him after Daley dropped them off at the park. Daley's 14-year-old son and seven other teens were also arre

  July 11, 2007

• Friday's Headlines

  Faithful despite the crappy leadership: The Times sent three reporters out to get a reaction to recent priest sex-abuse scandals and found many Catholics angry, but steadfast in their faith. "It's not Christ in crisis . . . it's the institution," said one scholar. He's no angel, say the cops: Angel Cerna of Anaheim was arrested on his way to his delivery job yesterday. The cops think he may have killed his wife, Gabriela Herrera, whose body was dumped along an East Los Angeles freeway in Novemb

  July 20, 2007

• OC White Supremacist Killer Avoids Death Penalty

  Just before lunch today, the jury in the Michael Allan Lamb murder case announced itself "hopelessly deadlocked" on whether the Public Enemy Number One (PENI) Death Squad member deserved the death penalty. The vote was nearly tied after almost three days of deliberating. Six jurors wanted death; five wanted life in prison without the possibility of parole; and one person remained undecided. Lamb kept silent, but studied his fingernails after the decision. Throughout the three-month proceedin

  July 31, 2007

• 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 Squad member in Anaheim. In July, a jury convicted Michael Alan Lamb and Jacob Anthony Rump for the killing. But during the trial Johnson tried to save his friends from convictions by claiming he alone

  August 24, 2007

• Future Of Sheriff's Department, County At Risk

  On Feb. 29 in this blog, R. Scott Moxley foresaw an "upcoming unflattering grand jury report" on the jailhouse murder of John Derek Chamberlain. Chamberlain was beat to death by inmates while Deputy Kevin Taylor, the on-duty officer, allegedly failed to notice the prolonged beating because he was watching baseball on television. Taylor also allegedly informed inmates that Chamberlain, arrested on child pornography charges, was in fact a child molester, and that inmates might receive special priv

  March 12, 2008

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

  September 30, 1999

• Life Imitates Art Imitating Life

  August 1, 2002

• Johnnie Cochran is Back to Right Another Alleged Injustice...Check That, It's His Law Firm

  Years after the glove didn't fit and we had to acquit, countless Larry King Live appearances and actor Phil Morris' career zenith with the Seinfeld Jackie Chiles parody, Johnnie Cochran Jr. is coming back to Orange County to right an alleged racial injustice. OK, so Mr. Cochran departed for that Great Ambulance Chase in the Sky back in 2005, but The Cochran Firm he started 40 years ago will represent the family of Julian Alexander, the 20-year-old newlywed and father-to-be who was mistakenl

  November 25, 2008

• In Anaheim, Sticks And Stones Can Kill You

  Auto Theft Advisory CommitteeFlanagan received an award last year for recovering the most stolen cars in the county. **Update: Julian Alexander's family has released a statement expressing their disappointment over the DA's decision not press charges against Kevin Fagan. "The shooting represents an egregious act of excessive and unnecessary force, and the impact of this tragedy has devastated and irreparably harmed his wife and young daughter...," the statement reads. If an innocent man waves a

  March 17, 2009

• Mystery Book Group

  January 15, 2009

• Jared Petrovich Admits His Role In the Killing of John Chamberlain. But Why Did He Target the Guy?

  April 3, 2008

• Just a Random Female

  Robbin Brandley’s confessed killer sits on death row. So why don’t her parents consider the case closed?

  November 22, 2007

• A History of Violence

  A brief history of anti-communist attacks in the United States
  

  August 16, 2007

• Blind Spot

  For OC jail inmate John Chamberlain, jailhouse justice served as judge, juryand executioner

  March 29, 2007

• Not So Boring

  A brief history of crime in Orange Countys safest city

  November 9, 2006

• A Death in the Family

  August 10, 2006

• We Respond to Register Letters!

  June 15, 2006

• A Perfect Crime

  December 15, 2005

• Chameleon

  October 6, 2005

• Final Analysis?

  June 9, 2005

• No Justice, No Peace of Mind

  January 20, 2005

• Hazardous Waist

  December 23, 2004

• Barrels of Fun!

  October 10, 2002

• All In the Family

  May 2, 2002

• Shantae Molina is Innocent

  August 31, 2000

• I . . . Shot My Son

  July 20, 2000

• The (Imaginary) Plague

  December 23, 1999

• Whats the Frequency, Sheriff?

  July 8, 1999

• Down These Mean Equestrian Trails

  May 6, 1999

• Kill A Gay Man And Go Free

  February 8, 1996

• Craig Newmark Speaks at Victim's Memorial in Wake of Craigslist Killings

  May 7, 2009

• Just Another Orange County Murder: Oscar Hernandez-Alarcon [UPDATED]

  View Larger Map UPDATED WITH VICTIM'S IDENTITY, NEW DETAILS ...A man searching a construction site in the 900 block of East South Street in Anaheim around 4:15 a.m. July 4 for materials to recycle instead found the body of an unidentified a man who'd who it was initially believed had been shot in the chest. Homicide detectives believe the corpse had been there just a few hours when the recycler stumbled upon it.NEW:Authorities have now identified the victim as Oscar Hernandez-Alarcon, 46, who wo

  July 13, 2009

• Barbara Coe Going Batshit Loca Over Jim Gilchrist

  The legal and verbal back-and-forth between Minuteman Project founder Jim Gilchrist and California Coalition for Immigration Reform head Barbara Coe has gone on for so long one doesn't even know where to begin. The only conclusion I can make is that Coe is the true evildoer of the former allies; after all, it was a CCIR meeting that inspired Gilchrist to start his effort, and while Gilchrist says wacky things from time to time, Coe's words are pure, hideous venom.Coe has especially gone bonkers

  July 8, 2009

• Just Another Orange County Murder: Jaime Anica Olvera

  View Larger MapUPDATED: THIS REPLACES "ANOTHER SANTA ANA JOHN DOE" AS THE VICTIM HAS BEEN IDENTIFIED. Jaime Anica Olvera, 27, of Santa Ana, was standing on a sidewalk at Huylars Lane and West Fifth Avenue in Santa Ana around 7 p.m. July 23 when he was confronted by a robber, who was later identified as Eduardo Valencia,18, also of Santa Ana. While the fighting ensued, a third man, later identified as Fabian Vargas Vega, 22, of Santa Ana, shot Olvera in the upper body. Valencia and Vega the

  August 5, 2009

• UPDATED WITH ARREST: Just Another Orange County Murder: Tayroh DeShawn Stinson

  View Larger Map UPDATE JUST IN FROM GARDEN GROVE POLICE DEPARTMENT: "On Sept. 29, Johnathan Allen Kincaid, 20, of Anaheim, was arrested for the murder of Tayroh Stinson.  Kincaid was already in custody after he was arrested on Sept. 4 in Las Vegas, Nevada, by the U.S. Marshal's Office for an outstanding warrant. Kincaid was extradited back to Orange County where Garden Grove Police detectives were waiting to make the arrest for murder. The investigation remains ongoing and no details of th

  September 29, 2009

• Lady Killer

  December 13, 2007

• If Drunk Drivers Who Kill Face Murder Charges, Why Not Charge City Councilman With Attempted Murder?

  Watch CBS Videos Online Sunday night, 60 Minutes replayed "DWI: Was It Murder?" Reporter Bob Simon interviewed a prosecutor who pursues murder charges against drunken drivers whose traffic collisions result in deaths of people in the other vehicles. Nassau County, New York, district attorney Kathleen Rice's first successful prosecution against just such a drunken driver resulted in a second-degree murder conviction and sentence of 18 years to life in prison against a 24-year-old insurance salesm

  August 5, 2009

• Just Another Orange County Murder: Leon Abarca Torres

  View Larger Map Today on Navel Gazing we begin reports on local murders, which we'll update with more details as they become available. Readers, witnesses and our friendly neighborhood men and women in blue are also invited to provide any insights in the comments section or by emailing the writer of the particular item, in confidence if that's what you prefer.Up first is the murder of 47-year-old Leon Abarca Torres of Santa Ana.Torres, Oscar Diaz Robles and Faustino Ramirez Diaz were apparently

  June 2, 2009

• Forty Years Later, the Clash Between the Black Panthers and Santa Ana P.D. Still Influences OC Life

  September 10, 2009

• The Unsolved Murder of Joe Avila Is Only One of Many Loose Ends From OC's Coked-Out '80s

  September 24, 2009

• UPDATED WITH SUSPECT SHOT DEAD: Just Another Orange County (Double) Murder: Heather Courtney Sorensen and Stephen Rene Serna

  UPDATED WITH POLICE KILLING OF MURDER SUSPECT, ID's OF HIS ALLEGED VICTIMS, CORRECTION . . . View Larger MapCourtesy of Anaheim Police DepartmentDouble murder suspect Anthony Castillo was shot by police Wednesday evening and declared dead later that night.​Anthony Castillo, the 31-year-old man wanted for allegedly taking his 5-year-old son after killing the boy's mother and boyfriend in Anaheim early Wednesday, was shot and killed by police that same night.Undercover officers traced Castillo t

  October 1, 2009

• Hold Your Mother of the Year Ballots: Here's the Woman Who Allegedly Stabbed Her Little Girls

  Courtesy of Westminster Police DepartmentThuy Le's booking photo.​This photo was taken today of Thuy Le, 38, of Garden Grove, after she was booked for allegedly trying to stab to death her 3- and 5-year-old daughters before turning the knife on herself in Westminster Wednesday morning.

  September 17, 2009

• [UPDATED WITH SUSPECT PHOTO, MORE DETAILS] Just Another Orange County Murder: Damon L. Nicholson

  View Larger Map UPDATE: Lake Forest 19-year-old Matthew Thomas Dragna will be arraigned in Santa Ana at 1:30 p.m. Friday in the Oct. 23 murder of longtime Hotel Laguna catering manager Damon L. Nicholson, who is believed to be Laguna Beach's first homicide victim since 2002.Courtesy of Laguna Beach Police DepartmentMatthew Thomas Dragna​Dragna, who is being held on $1 million bail, faces a maximum sentence of 25 years to life in state prison if convicted, according to the Orange County Distric

  November 19, 2009

• Just Another Orange County Murder: Joshua Steven Rodriguez

  View Larger MapJoshua Steven Rodriguez, 18, of La Habra, was fatally stabbed on Nov. 1, but his death was not officially deemed a murder until a massive search warrant sweep Thursday morning led to several arrests.Joshua Steven Rodriguez with his mother Yolanda Mansillas and brother Reise Rodriguez (center).​A fight involving gang members broke out after midnight at a party in the 1000 block of East Francis Avenue in La Habra. Rodriguez, who police do not believe was in a gang, was found stabb

  November 13, 2009