Busy Weekend

Every once in a while things go a little crazy out here. Blame the moon, blame the economy, blame the Santa Ana winds that scour the streets and set all our teeth just a little on edge.

Or just blame all the asshole gangbangers with tiny dicks who can't seem to get it through their fat, fucking skulls that a gun and the cowardice to use it doesn't make you a man.

Like this weekend.

Seven people shot in the Valley in three separate incidents. Three dead. Including a 4-month old baby.

Folks got into a pissing match outside a party. Somebody pulled a shotgun.

A shotgun. And a 4-month old baby.

Jesus fuck, people.

Gang-related. Big fucking surprise there. The fun kicked off last weekend when three got tagged, two killed, a 20-year-old man and a 15-year-old boy, outside a housing project in Pacoima.

The hell of it is that crime is actually down. City-wide the homicide rate has dropped 21% in the last two years. In Van Nuys, where all this shit happened over the weekend, it's down a whopping 63%. Eight in 2007, three in 2009 as of the 19th.

Well, it was nice while it lasted.

 

Since This Accounts For About A Third of My Hits

Pasadena, CA

Isaac Campbell. In Pitchess awaiting a preliminary hearing for murdering his girlfriend Liya "Jessie" Lu and stuffing her into a trashcan. Was supposed to have gone before a judge on September 9th.

Now it's been postponed to October 7th.

Oh, vaguely interesting coincidence for those of you who care, David Del Toro, the fire captain (who accounts for another third of my hits) accused of killing his girlfriend Jennifer Flores and then dragging her a quarter mile down the road after her body (let's hope it was her corpse and not, you know, her) fell partway out of the back of his truck leaving a long line of viscera right to his doorstep, has his new trial date set also for October 7th (just plug in Deltoro and David into the appropriate fields and you'll get him).

I've lost count how many times this guy has had his trial delayed. From what I understand it's not for trivial matters. Last I heard lack of warrants were being questioned, as well as what evidence could and could not be used. And the prosecutors want to throw together the best case they can.

Del Toro was picked up in August 2006 and Lu was found dead in September 2007.

The slow and steady grind of justice keeps rolling on.

In Case You're Wondering What To Get Me For My Birthday

Seriously, holy fuck.

And of course, it would be South African.

*Hat tip to Dusty Rhoades for the link.

Damn They're Good

El Monte, CA

Cesar Gomez, 34, is accused of strangling a prostitute in a hotel in El Monte on August 21st.

In and of itself, though tragic, it's not particularly remarkable, which is pretty sad all on its own. What's interesting about it is this.

Investigators linked Gomez to the crime through DNA collected at the scene...

He was picked up today. Presumably they had him tagged as a suspect before today.

But let's say they didn't. Assume that they got their test results back this morning with a positive match, got lucky and caught him. All in the same day.

We're talking less than 3 weeks from the crime to get the test results back. Jesus Christ, Orange County, how'd you pull that off?

As of July the California Department of Justice had a DNA processing backlog of 230 crime scenes and 60,815 offenders, a number which has sky-rocketed since Proposition 69, which mandated all arrestees in the state get a DNA test, went into effect in January.

The LAPD and LASD have had their own problems with processing crime scene evidence. The LAPD had over 7000 unprocessed rape kits last year and they've finally cut that down by half. Of course a whole bunch of them are useless since they've been sitting in freezers long enough that the statute of limitations has run out.

Point is, the fantasy of CSI notwithstanding, we've got a huge backlog in the state and the nation for this sort of thing. You don't get a result during a commercial break. Shit takes time. The only numbers I've found for just how much time is from New Jersey, which has their processing time down to a speedy 45 days.

So OC, how'd y'all move so fast on this one? The rest of the nation could maybe use some pointers.

Mix And Match

Lancaster, CA

Hey, school started this week. Kids going to classes, meeting new teachers, connecting with old friends, finding severed hands.

The hand was found yesterday afternoon near Challenger Middle School in Lancaster. Cadaver dogs searched the area, but didn't come up with anything else.

So the cops went out to the rest of the city looking for the guy who might be wondering where his hand went.

They found him.

Or parts of him, at least. Maybe.

A torso was found about 20 miles outside the city. But where's the rest?

This rate they'll find a foot in Palmdale, somebody's ear off the 138. Maybe a head in Mojave.

But will they all be from the same guy?

No Follow Through

Inglewood, CA

Darnell Stewart is on trial for attempted murder. Trial's almost over. Guess he didn't think he had much chance. He tried to slit his throat in the courtroom with a smuggled razor blade.

Attempted murder, attempted suicide. Clearly this is a man who isn't fond of finishing what he's started.

You can't expect to get very far in life if you can't commit. Like Yoda said, "Do, or do not. There is no try." Pick something. See it through to the end.

And no, a jail sentence doesn't count.

Training For Pitchess

Malibu, CA

Camp Kilpatrick is a juvenile probation center just off of Malibu Canyon Road. Kids go there when they've been naughty. Sometimes when they're there they continue to be naughty. Sometimes other words for 'naughty' are 'race riot'.

A fight broke out between African American and Latino inmates Saturday night. Took some dosing with pepper spray to stop it. Two staff and a slew of inmates injured. Twenty-three were split up and moved to separate facilities.

If it's one thing we know how to do in our jails it's riot. Look at Pitchess up in Castaic in 2006. How long did that go on for? Five days? Six?

L.A. County Chief Probation Officer Robert Taylor has this to say about the fight.

We'll be looking into the causes of this.

Oh come on, Einstein, it's not that tough to figure out. It's because you're cramming a bunch of hormone driven adolescents who want to kill each other into the same goddamn bunk room. The fuck did you think was going to happen?

Jails run along race lines. The Latinos hang out with the Latinos, blacks with blacks, whites with whites, etcetera and so on.

Jails are not melting pots. They're powder kegs.

He'll Bump Into Jesus Any Day Now

Terre Haute, IN

Back in August of '99 Buford O'Neal Furrow Jr., whose name I will endeavor to not mock... Okay, I lied. Buford? Seriously? The fuck names their child Buford? I mean besides inbred, bucktoothed hillbillies in the Appalachians? Buford?

Anyway, back in '99 Buford shot up a Jewish daycare center in Granada Hills. He was, surprise! a white supremacist. Injured three kids, a receptionist and murdered a Filipino postman because he was, you know, Filipino. Sure, they eat some fucked up stuff, but that's no reason to shoot a guy.

So, anyway, Buford gets two consecutive life sentences and an extra 110 years tacked on for, I dunno, having a fucked up hillbilly name? Being a brain-dead asshole? Shooting kids? The possibilities are endless.

Well, ten years have gone by and Buford has made some changes.

Seems he's sorry. You don't say?

"I feel a life based on hate is no life at all."

I don't know about that. I mean, I hate a lot of people. Folks who cut me off in traffic. Those guys at the restaurant down the street who always get my order wrong. G. Gordon Liddy. Seems to work for me.

Of course, I'm not shooting anyone over it. Though Liddy could use a bullet as far as I'm concerned.

"About 5 years ago I threw away my racist books, literature, etc., and took up a new leaf," Furrow wrote. "I now publicly renounce all bias toward anyone based on race, creed, color, sexual orientation, etc., and am a much happier person."

Well, that's great. So happy for you. There's only one problem.

It's bullshit.

I'm sorry, but you spend the entirety of your life chanting the white supremacist mantra and ten years in the cooler throws that all down the crapper? I don't buy it. Maybe there's no angle here. It's not like he's up for parole or anything. Maybe he's just a moron.

Okay, he's probably just a moron.

Boo-fuckin'-hoo. Oh, he's sooo sorry. I'm sure Mr. Ileto's family are tremendously relieved to hear that. And those kids that they had to pull the bullets out of, like Alan Stepakoff?

"There are three points I'd like to make," Stepakoff said. "One is, this doesn't change what he did. The second point is we are glad he has renounced his hateful beliefs. The third point is I'm not fully convinced of his sincerity."

How very diplomatic of you, young Mr. Stepakoff.

You're a better man than I'll ever be.

I Think They Have It Backwards

Santa Ana, CA

Jaime Martinez, 37, is officially a perv. He just got sentenced for molesting four girls between the ages of 5 and 12 over several years. Thirty-two felony counts. Threatened to shoot one of his victims, a 5-year-old girl, if she ever told anyone. Got another in the bathroom of her elementary school.

So they gave him 330 years to life.

Which makes no sense to me. You'd think that by the time 330 years rolled around he'd already be dead. Shouldn't it be life to 330 years? Is this like those car warranties where it's 50,000 miles or five years, whichever comes first?

See, this is not a man who should be locked up. This is a man who should be shot. It's not like they're trying to rehabilitate him to reintroduce him into society or anything.

It's cheaper. Nobody will mind. At least nobody worth listening to. And it helps with prison overcrowding.

And if you really need to live with the illusion that human beings are somehow better than barbaric, just bring back the oubliette.

Here's your hole, Jaime. We'll toss the occasional rat down for ya. Don't mind the cockroaches. They're good eatin'.