Just one story to update you on this weekend and it's a pretty recent one: a September fight in Placentia that resulted in a man's death and had prosecutors considering a homicide count against the accused killer.
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Story:
Peter Elijah Azevedo Could Face Homicide Count in Fight Death of Ramon Castaneda
Update: Peter Elijah Azevedo, 28, of Placentia, pleaded not guilty to assault and other charges related to a Sept. 5 fight that resulted in a head injury that hospitalized Ramon Benito Castaneda and, a week later, the 40-year-old's death.
But this week Azevedo pleaded guilty to felony assault with force likely to produce great bodily injury and misdemeanor resisting arrest and admitted to sentencing enhancements of committing a crime for a street gang and causing a coma or paralysis. He was sentenced to 19 years in state prison.
Azevedo was not alone. Steven Michael Roman was arrested after Azevedo in connection with Castaneda's death, and the 35-year-old Anaheim resident copped this week to felony assault with force likely to produce great bodily injury. He was immediately sentenced to five years behind bars.
Story:
Murder Counts for Alleged Would-Be Robber, 2 Lookouts and Getaway Driver in Blown Heist Where Jeweler Killed 2 Baddies
Update: A defendant involved in a botched jewelry store heist in San Juan Capistrano that led to the deaths of two suspects pleaded guilty Friday to voluntary manslaughter and agreed to testify for the prosecution, and the prosecutor says his son is also considering a plea deal.
Eddie Allen Clark Sr., 53, also pleaded guilty to four counts of attempted second-degree robbery and assault with a semiautomatic firearm, according to Senior Deputy District Attorney Scott Simmons, who expects the defendant to be sentenced April 10 to 10 years behind bars.
Meanwhile, 30-year-old Eddie Allen Clark Jr., 30, is also considering a plea deal, Simmons told City News Service. George Anthony Boozer, 39, also accepted a deal that had him pleading guilty May 22, 2013, to assault with a semiautomatic firearm and five counts of attempted second-degree robbery, all felonies. He is expected to get 12 years and four months in prison, Simmons said.
The three along with Alan Keith Hunter, 42, of Moreno Valley, and James Stephan Paschall, 44, of Gardena, were all charged with murder under the legal theory there actions in trying to rob Monaco Jewelers on June 24, 2011, led to the shop owner fatally shooting two other would-be robbers, Robert Earl Avery and Desmond Brown, both Los Angeles 39-year-olds.
If Clark Jr. takes a deal, he is not expected to testify, but if Clark Sr. and Boozer are found to not testify fully and truthfully, their plea deals could be pulled and they'd be back to facing murder counts, Simmons said.
It's easy to understand why the Monaco Jewelers owner was packing. As we noted in the orginal report, the same store in July 2009 was the victim of a $5.8 million jewelry heist that Orange County sheriff's investigator J. DelMonico called a “very sophisticated, professional job,” and “one of the best we've seen.”
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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.