A judge sentences two men to die by lethal injection for murdering two children and three adults in a 1995 attack that prosecutors said was ordered by the Mexican Mafia prison gang. One of the defendants was Jimmy Palma, 23, of Arcadia.
Two men, including 22 year old Arcadian Jimmy Palma, were convicted of five counts of first-degree murder for shooting three adults and two children last year in El Monte.
Jimmy Palma, 22, of Arcadia received a death-penalty recommendation for the April 22, 1995 massacre of five people in El Monte. A final decision on the matter will be announced by the presiding judge on February 19, 1997.
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.
Arcadia, E. O. Rodeffer, and Public Storage won a round in their legal dispute with the city of El Monte. On March 12, Superior Court Judge Norman Douds ordered El Monte to allow San Gabriel Valley Water Company to dig up El Monte streets to install water lines to a Public Storage building partially located in Arcadia.
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.
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.
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.
John Anderson, 52, pleaded not guilty in Pasadena Superior Court to a probation violation related to a 2005 conviction for prowling, peeking, and trespassing in Arcadia. He allegedly shot a veteran Monrovia police sergeant too.
Peter Phoenix, 27, of Rosemead, was found guilty of four of seven counts of "distraction burglaries" targeting seniors in the San Gabriel Valley. His sentence is 144 years in prison.
The body of Liya Lu, a 31-year-old woman, was found in a back yard on Baldwin Avenue. Her American name is "Jessie". She was last seen on August 11. See also 30907AN.
Alhambra Superior Court Judge Alice Hill found "sufficient cause" to hold Isaac Campbell, 34, to be tried for the murder of Liya "Jessie" Lu. He will be arraigned May 7.
Convicted rapist Steven Wu, the Arcadia deacon who drugged his two sisters-in-law and videotaped himself sexually assaulting them, was sentenced to 79 years in prison Friday.
After serving 17 years as a crossing guard, 83-year-old Harry Christianson is retiring. The children at Highland Oaks honored him with a special Mr. Chris Day.
70-year-old Mulji Patel of Arcadia was sentenced to 12 years in prison for hitting a workers' compensation attorney in the head with a hammer. The assault happened on January 31, 2006. Erwin A. Nepomuceno was the victim.
Former Arcadia High School teacher Phillip Morgan Sutliff pleaded guilty to multiple sex crimes against a former student, accepting a plea bargain of 12 years and eight months in state prison.
Richard Robert Russo, convicted in the murder of his wife Carmen, hanged himself with a bedsheet in his cell at Wasco State Prison. He died Sunday, October 15, 2006.
Arcadia police arrested two Arcadia High School students 16, and 15, in connection with a December 11 racial incident in which a cross was burned and anti-Asian epithets were scrawled on the front yard of a home in the 200 block of Arbolada Drive. The two boys were booked for damaging property based on ethnic origin and were released to the custody of their parents.