Weekender Updater: Sex Offender GPS Bills, Gang Banger's Murder Conviction and More

This weekend you are updated on: Orange County legislators trying to improve Global Positioning System (GPS) monitoring of sex offenders; the murder conviction of a gang member who gunned down a young man on a bike and then handed his hood rat a flower; a man being ordered to stand trial on charges of kidnapping his former live-in girlfriend's teenage daughter and sexually assaulting her over 10 years; mercy shown for an ex-drug dealer who had been indicted for murder in his girlfriend's heroin overdose death; a lost appeal of Orange County's first guilty verdict for human trafficking of a minor under terms of Proposition 35; and the filing of a wrongful death lawsuit in an electrical worker's electrocution in an underground vault in Huntington Beach.

]

Story: Steven Dean Gordon Confessed He and Franc Cano Slayed 5 Prostitutes: Grand Jury Report

Update: Spurred by the murders of four women blamed on two convicted sex offenders who allegedly slipped out of their tracking devices while out of custody, two Orange County legislators have proposed legislation to improve electronic monitoring and toughen penalties for those who skirt the law. State Sen. Pat Bates (R-Laguna Niguel) wants to make it a felony for convicted sex offenders who slip out of or disable GPS devices, and Assemblyman Don Wagner (R-Irvine) wants to establish a California GPS database to better scrutinize the location and possible interactions of offenders wearing court-ordered monitoring devices. Wagner discussed his AB 1213 at a press conference Friday with Orange County Board of Supervisors Chairman Todd Spitzer at Juvenile Hall in Orange. The bill is scheduled to be heard by the Assembly Public Safety Committee on Tuesday in Sacramento.

Story: Jeamy Beatriz Melendez, Issac Angel Martinez, Ricardo Alcala Held in Edgar Omar Sura Killing

Update: Gang member Ricardo Ray Alcala, who laughed about gunning down a phlebotomy student in Santa Ana as the victim begged for his life and tried to run away, has been convicted of first-degree murder. Jurors deliberated about two hours before convicting the 26-year-old of murder, possession of a firearm by a felon and street terrorism. They also found true a special circumstance allegation of committing the crime for the benefit of a street gang. Alcala faces a sentence of life in state prison without the possibility of parole at a June 12 court hearing. Alcala, his “hood rat” Jeamy Beatriz Melendez, 25, and fellow gang member Isaac Angel Martinez, 27, were prowling a Santa Ana neighborhood for rivals on Oct. 19, 2012, when they spotted 20-year-old Edgar Omar Sura riding his bicycle. Sura was asked which gang he belonged to, and when he replied he did not belong to one (because he didn't), he was shot dead anyway by Alcala, who then picked up a flower and handed it to his getaway driver girlfriend Melendez while declaring “I love you,” according to Deputy District Attorney Erik Petersen. The victim “was good and kind, and he was getting his degree in phlebotomy because he wanted to work in the healthcare field,” Petersen told City News Service after the verdict. Martinez and Melendez, who testified for the prosecution and is expected to receive a plea deal, are to be tried at a later date.

Story: Isidro Medrano Garcia “Shocked” by Wife's Abduction Allegations, His Lawyer Says

Update: After hearing testimony from Santa Ana Police Detective Ricardo Diaz, Orange County Superior Court Robert Fitzgerald Friday ordered Isidro Medrano Garcia to stand trial on charges of kidnapping his former live-in girlfriend's teenage daughter in Santa Ana and sexually assaulting her over 10 years. The girl was born in Mexico and came to the United States to be reunited with her mother and sister, who lived with Garcia in the 800 block of Fairview Street. After a fight between Garcia and the girl's mother 11 years ago, the man and the girl disappeared. The 15-year-old's mother reported her missing to police. A Santa Ana Police investigation found Garcia forced the girl into marriage in 2007, fathered her child in 2012 and threatened her with beatings and deportation to keep her quiet over the past decade. She resurfaced in April 2014, when she contacted her sister through Facebook on her birthday. The following month, the now 25-year-old woman walked into a Bell Gardens police station to accuse Garcia of domestic violence and reveal that he had kidnapped her in 2004. He was quickly arrested. The 41-year-old was also ordered by Judge Fitzgerald to answer to charges of forcible rape, kidnapping to commit a sex offense and three counts of lewd acts on a minor. He was scheduled to return to court for a post-preliminary hearing arraignment on May 5. Garcia's attorney Charles Frisco Jr. is expected to make the case that the alleged victim went with his client willingly and that they made a life together as a couple, City News Service reports.

[

Story: Louis Richard Wood, Heroin Dealer, to be Arraigned for Murder in Woman's O.D. Death

Update: Louis Richard Wood, who had been indicted for murder in the heroin overdose death of 21-year-old Emma Wihlborg in a Lake Forest hotel room on Nov. 16, 2011, pleaded guilty this week to involuntary manslaughter. Under a plea deal that had prosecutors dropping the murder count against the 37-year-old Mission Viejo man, Orange County Superior Court Judge Thomas Goethals is expected to sentence Wood on Sept. 14 to four years in custody, although he will have already served enough time to then be released from Orange County Jail. Senior Deputy District Attorney Howard Gundy explained to City News Service that a murder prosecution became problematic because blood evidence from Wihlborg was destroyed by the Orange County Crime Laboratory, which did not initially consider her death a criminal matter. Wood's attorney Cori Ferrentino said the case against her client “was really overblown when it was filed,” explaining he tried to revive his girlfriend. “There was never any intent to kill her or a wanton disregard for her safety,” Ferrentino said. “… He definitely felt horrible after she died, and he actually got sober after she died and he had been clean for almost a year when he got arrested.” The attorney added a meeting is being arranged between Wihlborg's parents and a “remorseful” Wood, who offered to tell them what had happened the night of their daughter's death.

Story: Cierra Melissa Robinson Gets 5 Years for Recruiting 14 y.o. Girl for Her Pimp

Update: Cierra Melissa Robinson lost her appeal of her conviction that happened to be Orange County's first for human trafficking of a minor under terms of Proposition 35. The 29-year-old had sought to have her guilty verdict tossed on grounds the Orange County trial court lacked jurisdiction because Robinson's crimes occurred exclusively in Arizona, where she recruited the 14-year-old girl for her pimp, Chuncey Tarae Garcia. But Tuesday's ruling from the Fourth District Court of Appeal found Robinson's culpability continued after girl was transported to California, so “jurisdiction in this state was proper.” The panel of three justices also rejected Robinson's argument that Orange County Superior Court Judge M. Marc Kelly (ever heard of him?) erred when instructing jurors. Robinson is serving a five-year prison sentence while Garcia got the maximum after his March 2014 conviction: 17 years to life in the joint.

Story: Brandon H. Orozco ID'd as Worker Killed in Surf City Vault Explosion

Update: The father of Brandon H. Orozco, an electrical worker electrocuted in an underground vault in Huntington Beach in 2013, has filed a wrongful death suit against Southern California Edison. Hector Orozco's complaint alleges Rosemead-based Edison negligently maintained the vault by failing to shut off the power before allowing his 28-year-old's five-member crew to work in the vault. Electricity suddenly began flowing through the vault on Sept. 30, 2013, when the younger Orozco was killed. The father also claims Edison should have had a supervisor on site. “The deplorable condition of the underground electrical vault … was hazardous and in violation of existing laws, regulatory provisions and/or the standards in the industry,” the suit states. An Edison spokesman declined to comment on the litigation but did note Brandon Orozco was employed by a third party, CAM Contractors Inc. The suit points out that Edison hired CAM Contractors, which employed Orozco as an apprentice lineman.

Email: mc****@oc******.com. Twitter: @MatthewTCoker. Follow OC Weekly on Twitter @ocweekly or on Facebook!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *