The California Second District Court of Appeals rejected Mulji Patel's claim that the restitution awarded to Erwin Nepomuceno for $20,250 in lost earnings was excessive. Patel was convicted in March 2009 on two counts of assaults with a deadly weapon for the January 31, 2006 attack on Nepomuceno, a workers' compensation attorney. Patel was a Rockwell International employee and a jury found him sane at the time. Patel was sentenced in May 2009 to 12 years in state prison.
25-year-old Arcadia man Matthew Fay Echauri sentenced to 10 years and life in state prison with the possibility of parole for attempted murder, mayhem and domestic violence for stabbing his 18 year-old girlfriend in Temple City two years ago.
William Cottrell's (aka Billy Cottrell), a former Caltech physics student who was in prison for participating in firebombing 100 vehicles in the San Gabriel Valley (Duarte, Arcadia, West Covina) in 2003, will be resentenced. The federal court has dropped arson charges against him but he remains convicted on a conspiracy charge. He could be released or face more prison time.
Joshua Parra-Davis, 23, of Arcadia, was allegedly found with a bomb after visiting Foothills Middle School on January 14, 2011. He will face four felony counts of possession of a destructive or explosive device. He is being held at Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department Pitchess Detention Center in Castaic, and due back at Pasadena Superior Court on June 15 to enter a plea. If convicted of all four felony counts, he could face up to 19 years in prison.
A 19-year-old man Matthew Zamora, could face a 25 year prison sentence for shooting and killing 24-year-old Joseph Romero of Arcadia, on June 16, 2012, on the 5200 block of Tyler Avenue in unincorporated county area near Arcadia and El Monte.
Registered sex offender Jaime Elvis Elizondo, who was convicted of assaulting a 5-year-old girl inside an Arcadia bookstore in 2008 and sent to prison in September, was beaten to death in his cell at High Desert State Prison. Prime suspect is Elizondo's cellmate Steven Cisneros.
Sex offender Jaime Elvis Elizondo, 35, of San Gabriel, was sentenced this week to 30 years to life in prison for molesting a 5-year-old girl at a mall bookstore in Arcadia in 2008.
Isaac John Campbell, 33, pleaded not guilty to murdering his former girlfriend, Liya "Jessie" Lu, whose body was found in a trash can at his friend's home in Arcadia. Campbell will return to Alhambra Superior Court on June 19 for a hearing to determine if there is enough evidence to require him to stand trial.
The trial of Isaac Campbell, a San Gabriel man accused of killing his ex-girlfriend Liya "Jessie" Lu and stuffing her body in a trash can at his friend Michael Darby's home in Arcadia, has begun at Alhambra Superior Court.
Teacher Brandon Michael Landreth, 30, of Pasadena, pleaded not guilty at his arraignment in Pasadena Superior Court. He allegedly confessed to his ex-wife that he shot 25-year old Justo Cesar Morales to death at his parents' Canyon Road home in Northern Arcadia.
A jury convicted DeQiang Song, 24 of Monterey Park, of the kidnapping and attempted murder of a 21-year-old woman, who he knew through a mutual friend, after taking her on a trip to Westfield Santa Anita shopping mall in Arcadia on September 8, 2010. He then took her to a remote area of desert in San Bernardino County and bound her, strangled her, sliced her throat with a knife and left her for dead. She survived. Song asked the victim's father for $10,000 in ransom money. He will be sentenced April 26 in Alhambra Superior Court.
Arcadia man Tatsuhiko Sakamoto, 37, pleaded not guilty to fatally hitting 21-year-old road worker Connor McDermott Penhall, in Pomona Superior Court yesterday. The crash happened April 4, 2012, when Sakamoto allegedly drove onto a closed part of the 10 Freeway in Baldwin Park, while drunk. He will next appear in court June 27 to set a date for his preliminary hearing.
Juan Lorenzo, 33, of San Gabriel, was sentenced to 12 years in prison in the 2011 stabbing death of 18-year-old Pomona man Anthony Berry. Lorenzo was working at Money Pot Shabu Shabu Restaurant in the 1300 block of S. Golden West Avenue, when he got involved in an argument with Berry.
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger appointed Thomas L. Willhite, 50, of Arcadia to the State Court of Appeal for the Second District. Willhite has also been a Superior Court judge and a Los Angeles Municipal Court judge.
Deqiang Song, 26, of Monterey Park, gets life in prison without possibility of parole, for the crime of kidnapping for ransom, and a second sentence of life in prison plus four years, for the attempted murder of his then 21-year-old victim. Song met his victim through a mutual friend and took her to Westfield Santa Anita mall in Arcadia on September 8, 2010. Then he took her to a remote area of desert in San Bernardino County. He strangled the woman and slit her throat. He called her father for ransom. She survived.
A home invasion robbery on December 12 resulted in the shooting death of 35 year old Jose Antonio Parra, while his girlfriend and three small children were locked in a bedroom. It happened on the 11000 block of Kristi Court in unincorporated county area near Arcadia.
57-year-old Richard Henry Solis of Arcadia faces two felony counts of grand theft from elder and six counts of petty theft from elder. The alleged crimes involved Solis claiming the victims had injured him with their vehicles and then asking for money for medical expenses or stealing their belongings, reportedly stealing $100,000 from the victims.