This weekend you are updated on Orange County prosecutors opposing the parole of a prom-night killer (again) as well as the prison sentence given to the rapist of a family member. Meanwhile, prosecutors have no issue with the prison sentences given to two Santa Ana murderers, and a plastic surgeon the DA's office once tried to convict of insurance fraud is being sued by a former business partner.
]
Story:
Orange County Prosecutors Oppose Prison Release For Paul Crowder, 1991 Anaheim Prom Night Killer
Update: The Board of Parole Hearings, California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitations on Friday rescinded the parole of 42-year-old Paul Crowder, who shot and murdered a 17-year-old high school student while she was sleeping in her hotel room on prom night. Crowder was 19 at the time of the June 1, 1991, slaying at the Sterling Crown Suites Hotel in Anaheim. Victim Berlyn Cosman was an excellent student at Crescenta Valley High School and had an athletic scholarship for college basketball. Crowder, who is currently being held at Deuel Vocational Institution in Tracy, was sentenced Nov. 1, 1991, to 15 years to life in state prison and an additional four years for the personal use of a firearm. In 2010, the state parole board granted Crowder parole, but on Nov. 12 of that year then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger overturned the board on various grounds, including the inmate's lack of insight and responsibility of the murder. On Oct. 19, 2011, the board granted Crowder parole again, and the following Nov. 4 Gov. Jerry Brown reversed the board for reasons that included the inmate's dishonesty about the murder, failure to accept responsibility and participating in illegal activity in prison. A state appellate court overruled Brown and reinstated Crowder's parole date. Friday's hearing had the parole board rescinding their earlier decision of granting Crowder parole on grounds he violated prison rules in 2014. But he will get a new parole hearing in the next four months that District Attorney Tony Rackauckas has vowed to fight on grounds Crowder still poses a risk to the public.
Story:
Maria Isabel Cerrillo, OC Homicide No. 46: Ex-Boyfriend Luis Antonio Garcia Morales Held in Stabbing
Update: Luis Antonio Garcia Morales was sentenced Friday to life in state prison without the possibility of parole for stabbing and murdering his former girlfriend in a Santa Ana alleyway. The 26-year-old Santa Ana resident was found guilty by a jury on Nov. 24 of one felony count of special circumstance murder by lying in wait, and the sentencing enhancement for the personal use of a deadly weapon was found true. Morales pretended to be someone else when he arranged to meet 21-year-old Maria Isabel Cerrillo on the evening of Nov. 13, 2012. He then confronted his ex-girlfriend in an alleyway and murdered her by stabbing her repeatedly before fleeing the scene. Santa Ana cops busted Morales two days later. His defense attorney tried to argue it was not a premeditated crime but something done in the heat of the moment. Jurors found otherwise.
Story:
Kimberly Gutierrez, 2012 OC Homicide No. 22: 2-Month-Old Drowned
Update: Lucero Carrera was sentenced Friday to 25 years to life in prison for drowning her infant daughter in a bathtub. A jury had found the 30-year-old bipolar woman legally sane and guilty of first-degree murder and child assault in the death of 2-month-old Kimberly Gutierrez in a whirlpool bath in a Santa Ana trailer park on June 29, 2012. If the jury had found Carrera insane at the time of the killing, she could have been sent to a state mental institution for as long as a prison sentence would be, or be treated as an outpatient. Her attorney had argued Carrera was first hospitalized for a suicide attempt at age 15, alternates between manic and passive phases, has a schizo-affective disorder and that “altruistic filicide” led her to kill her child. Senior Deputy District Attorney Jim Mendelson said there's no dispute that Carrera is bipolar, but he told jurors that she was exaggerating her symptoms to avoid prosecution, a concept known as “malingering,” and used her illness as a “Get Out of Jail Free Card,” City News Service reports.
[
Story:
Jesus Acosta-Inchaorrondo, Out on Bail for Alleged Molest and Sex Assault on Teen Relative, Accused of Plot to Kidnap Her
Update: Orange County Superior Court Judge James Rogan last week sentenced Jesus Acosta-Inchaorrondo to 18 years in prison for threatening to kill a teenage relative if she would not submit to his raping her, pummeling her stomach with his fists as she tried to fight off the assault, and then trying to have her spirited away to Mexico so she couldn't testify against him. If that punishment does not sound right to you, get in line behind Deputy District Attorney Vanessa Woods, who objected to the plea deal Rogan and Acosta-Inchaorrondo struck in January. If the 61-year-old Laguna Hills resident had been convicted at trial, he would have faced up to 32 years and eight months in prison. Woods argued in January that the victim, who was 17 when she was raped, has had the rug pulled out from under her several times, City News Service reports. Acosta-Inchaorrondo copped to forcible rape, sodomy of a minor older than 14, solicitation to commit a felony and dissuading a witness, all felonies, and a misdemeanor violation of a protective order. He also admitted to a sentencing enhancement for committing a crime while out on bail.
Story:
Dr. Jay W. Calvert, Newport Beach-Beverly Hills Plastic Surgeon, Cleared of Insurance Fraud
Update: Dr. Jay Calvert is reportedly being sued by a former business partner who alleges the plastic surgeon with offices in Newport Beach and Beverly Hills cheated him out of his share of a multimillion-dollar tech start-up. Calvert and Adam Michael Perzow co-founded MD Insider, a company that analyzes the performance of doctors to determine who provides the best care at the best prices, the Daily Pilot reports. In his suit filed in Orange County Superior Court, Perzow alleges he was a patient who brought the idea for MD Insider to Calvert, who later claimed he planned to shut down their fledgling company, bought back his partner's 50 percent stake for $3,000 and then went on to build up MD Insider behind the plaintiff's back. Perzow seeks half of MD Insider in his suit, and while numbers are not specified in court documents, Calvert's attorney tells the Pilot that half stake could be worth $10 million to $12 million. Arthur Barens adds that he and his client Calvert have refused to settle and plan to take the case to trial scheduled for next month because Perzow “never contributed one thing to the company” and left in early 2011 when MD Insider “had zero value.”
Email: mc****@oc******.com. Twitter: @MatthewTCoker. Follow OC Weekly on Twitter @ocweekly or on Facebook!
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.