Category: Murder/Homicide

The latimes.com website reported in an article on April 13, 2009 that music producer Phil Spector, 69 was found guilty of second degree murder in California of actress Lana Clarkson. The shooting took place six year ago. A Los Angeles Superior Court jury came to its verdict after nine days of deliberation. This is the second trial. The first jury ended deadlocked, 10 out of the 12 jurors in favor of guilt. Spector gained fame after working with musical bands including the Righteous Brothers, the Beatles, and Tina Turner. When sentenced, Spector faces a minimum of 18 years in prison.… Read More

Nine people were shot at a private religious college in East Oakland, and the police officials believed that seven have been pronounced dead, according to ABC News. The shooting took place on Monday morning, April 2, 2012 at Oikos University, an independent Korean Christian school that offers undergraduate courses in ministry and nursing, among other degree. Authorities tracked down the gunman more than a mile away in an Alameda shopping mall an hour after the shooting. A suspect was detained, and Pastor Jong Kim, the school founder, said the shooter had previously been a nursing student at Oikos but was… Read More

The homicide rate in the areas served by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department dropped to 0.61 deaths per 10,000 residents in 2010, the lowest it has been since 1965, according to data recently released by the Sheriff’s Department. The numbers are taken from the entire area served by the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department. In order to be included as a “homicide,” a crime had to involve the killing of one person by another, whether intentional or accidental. In total, 181 homicides occurred in Los Angeles County in 2010, the lowest number in any one year since 1971. Overall, since… Read More

Tragically, a five-year-old boy was gunned down in an alleged gang attack while getting ready to go trick-or-treating, according to The Los Angeles Times. The young boy was posing in a Spiderman costume in his backyard in Los Angeles. The attack is suspected of being misdirected gunfire between the Crips and the Bloods, two notorious rival Los Angeles gangs. The young boy was hit in the head with a stray bullet and died immediately. Although the boy’s house is in the middle of an area notorious for gangs, no one in his family is connected to a gang. Along with… Read More

The recent arrest of the “Grim Sleeper” killer has shined a light on California’s policy of allowing familial DNA searches, according to the New York Times. Familial DNA searches are the use of DNA samples from convicts to find relatives who may have committed a crime. Only California and Colorado have written policies allowing familial DNA searches, although the technique is commonly used in England. Earlier this summer, the L.A.P.D. used a familial DNA search to find the “Grim Sleeper” killer, who is accused of having killed at least 10 victims in the L.A. area over 25 years. In their… Read More

Lonnie Franklin Jr. was arrested in Los Angeles on July 7 on suspicion of being the “Grim Sleeper” killer. In the 1980’s, a series of killings of young black women occurred and then stopped, resuming 14 years later, which inspired the name Grim Sleeper. Lonnie Franklin was charged with 10 counts of murder, as well as other charges, reports anABC News article. Franklin was arrested 15 times over the past several decades for burglary, car theft, gun possession and assault. However, he was never entered into California’s DNA database because his crimes were not serious enough. Despite all his arrests,… Read More

According to the Los Angeles Times, a 22-year-old man faces three counts of capital murder after a pregnant Venice woman was fatally stabbed. The 38-year-old woman, and the twins whom she was pregnant with, were killed during a robbery. The suspect accused of the murder has also been charged with rape. According to the report, while the suspect does have a history of burglary and trespassing, there was never any indication that he was predisposed to the violence found to have taken place in the Venice slaying. In any Los Angeles murder case, it is vital that all details of… Read More

The boyfriend of a slain 24-year-old Reseda woman has been charged with her murder. According to an abclocal.go.com article, the 30-year-old East Los Angeles man allegedly had an altercation with the woman on December 20, 2009, which reportedly ended with the woman being repeatedly stabbed with an ice pick. The boyfriend now faces one charge of murder with a deadly and dangerous weapon. If convicted, he faces a maximum prison term of 26 years-to-life, and is currently in custody on $1 million bail. The story explains that the woman’s body was discovered the following day in Winnetka. The woman’s brother… Read More

Although it was speculated that a down trodden economy would inevitably lead to an increase in criminal activity, the crime rate in Los Angeles has dropped in 2009 with homicide numbers plummeting to levels not seen since the 1960s. According to the Los Angeles Times, 2009 marks the seventh consecutive year that the number of serious crimes committed in Los Angeles County has dropped. The number of violent crimes in Los Angeles dropped by about 10%, while the number of property crimes fell by about 8%. All in all, the Los Angeles Police Department and Sheriff’s Department has had to… Read More

The circumstances surrounding Michael Jackson’s death may have cleared up over the last few months, but details surrounding criminal charges are still being determined. Reportedly, decisions regarding criminal charges connected to the pop singer’s death will not be made before 2010. According to the Los Angeles Times, the evidence involved in the case, much of which is complicated medical data, is so extensive that outside medical experts have been called in to help determine the scope of negligent action that played a role in Jackson’s death. Jackson died on June 25th, the official cause determined to have been “acute propfol… Read More