Shootings near UC Riverside leave 1 dead, 1 injured

A Chino Hills man armed with two handguns allegedly opened fire in an apartment complex near UC Riverside on Wednesday night, killing one resident and wounding another “for no apparent reason,’’ authorities said.

Daniel John Jones, 44, was visiting an acquaintance in the apartment complex in the 5300 block of Canyon Crest Drive in Riverside when he entered the first victim’s apartment about 7:20 p.m. and allegedly opened fire, according to Sgt. Dan Russell of the Riverside Police Department.

Jones then walked to a landing between apartment buildings and shot a second person, again “for no apparent reason,’’ Russell said in a statement Thursday.

Jones fled the scene in his car and, moments later, was involved in a minor traffic collision on the Moreno Valley Freeway, near University Avenue, police said.

After Jones pulled over on an offramp, a passing motorist offered to help him. Jones, who the
witness described as intoxicated, then allegedly demanded the other motorist’s car keys and pulled out two handguns. The motorist ran to safety, police said.

Earthquake early warning system passes major test with quake

In the seismic annals of California, Monday’s 4.7 earthquake was little more than a footnote. It gave Southern California a small morning jolt but caused no damage and was largely shrugged off by noon.

But in one important way, the quake was highly significant because it marked an advance in California’s burgeoning earthquake early warning system.

The quake struck in the desert town of Anza, and hundreds of sensors embedded in the ground immediately sent an alert to seismologists at Caltech in Pasadena. They had 30 seconds warning before the quake was felt there.

“It was right,” said Kate Hutton, a seismologist with Caltech. “I sat really still to see if I could feel it and it worked.”

The system has been in place for more than a year. But Monday’s quake offered a rare opportunity to actually see – and feel -- if it worked.

The sensor have warned scientists of numerous quakes, but the vast majority were either too small to feel or too far away to be felt in the Los Angeles area. For example, the sensor gave an early warning of several magnitude 5 quakes last year in Imperial County, but the temblors hit too far away for them to felt in Los Angeles.

The Anza quake was different.

Even though it measured magnitude 4.7, its location on solid granite made the shaking stronger and more widespread. People reported to the USGS that they felt it as far away as Arizona and Central California. At Caltech, computer screens flashed with a 30-second countdown to when the shaking would hit Pasadena. Sure enough, it came on time.

Hutton and other declared the test a success, with some caveats.

The system initially overestimated the quake’s magnitude, saying it was a 5.2. But U.S. Geological Survey seismologist Susan Hough was not overly concerned about the error. She noted that the main job of the system is to alert people to a coming quake, not to gets its magnitude precisely right. The Anza quake caused an unusually intense amount of shaking, Hough added, so the warning system accurately captured that.

The early earthquake warning system is a pilot project for what scientists hope will eventually be a statewide network using thousands of sensors to notify people about imminent shaking from moderate to strong earthquakes.

Ex-Marines face death penalty in murder-rape case

Jury selection is scheduled to begin Tuesday in the trial of three former Marines charged with murdering another Marine and his wife in 2008 in Riverside County.

Sgt. Jan Pietrzak, 24, and his wife, Quiana Jenkins-Pietrzak, 26, were bound and gagged before they were shot in the head, prosecutors said. Jenkins-Pietrzak was raped while her husband was forced to watch, and a fire was set to destroy evidence, according to court documents.

The Riverside County district attorney's office is seeking the death penalty against Kevin Cox, 25; Tyrone Miller, 25; and Emrys John, 22.

A fourth former Marine, Kesaun Sykes, 25, also faces the death penalty but will be tried separately, the district attorney's office said. All four have pleaded not guilty.

Prosecutors said the attackers stormed the couple's home in the French Valley neighborhood in southern Riverside County as part of a robbery scheme. 

Pietrzak, an Iraq war veteran, was stationed at Miramar Marine Corps Air Station in San Diego. His wife was a counselor with a Riverside County infant care program. They had been married for two months.

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twitter.com/LAJourno

Photo: Tyrone Miller and Kevin Cox. Credit: Riverside County Sheriff's Department

California earthquake a reminder of seismic dangers

Monday morning's magnitude 4.7 earthquake in Riverside County hit is a seismically active area, and experts said it was a reminder of the potential dangers.

“It's a good idea to take it to heart and make sure you're prepared,” U.S. Geological Survey Seismologist Robert Graves said. “We live in Southern California, and we have lots of active faults; and every once in a while, it's large enough to cause damage.”

Here are four graphics from the USGS that tell the story of Monday's earthquake:

The USGS said the quake was felt as far away as Arizona and the Central Valley. Here's a map showing where people responded to the USGS's "Did You Feel It?" website:

The USGS got more than 9,000 responses from the public. The chart shows when the responses were sent:

This map shows the shaking intensity of the Monday temblor:

The star shows the location of the quake with other historic quakes in the area plotted with orange circles.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The quake was initially recorded as three separate quakes because a foreshock tricked seismographs into recording multiple quakes of multiple sizes, said Susan Hough, a USGS seismologist.

Earthquakes of a 4.7 magnitude are typically only felt about 120 miles from the epicenter, but Monday morning's quake traveled farther.

That's because the quake occurred in the San Jacinto Mountains, which are composed of hard granite that transmits energy more efficiently, Hough said.

The quake occurred along the San Jacinto Fault Zone, which runs through San Bernardino, San Diego, Riverside and Imperial counties roughly parallel to the San Andreas Fault. It's one of three fault zones that absorb friction from the motion of the North American Continent and the Pacific plates rubbing against each other.

“It's capable of generating moderate to large earthquakes,” said Graves. “Today's activity was not out of the ordinary. Actually, it's pretty typical of the area.”

There is some evidence that the largest quake ever recorded in the fault zone, a magnitude 7, occurred in the early 1800s, Graves said.

No injuries or major damage was reported.

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Map at left: The San Jacinto fault zone. Credit: USGS

 

 

 

 

Authorities search for bank robber dubbed the 'Luger Bandit'

The FBI and local authorities in Los Angeles and San Bernardino counties are searching for a man dubbed “the Luger Bandit” who is believed to have robbed two banks earlier this year and attempted to rob a third Friday while brandishing a pistol that resembles a German-made Luger.

The first robbery took place Jan. 3 at a Wells Fargo branch in the Granada Hills neighborhood of the San Fernando Valley, according to a statement forwarded by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Dept. The same man is believed to have robbed a Wells Fargo in Fontana on Feb. 18 and attempted to rob a Wells Fargo in San Dimas on March 8.

During each robbery, the suspect ordered employees and customers to the ground, pulled out a silver pistol and demanded cash in various denominations. Bank surveillance photos show him wearing a sweat shirt with a hood, jeans, a facemask, sunglasses and black gloves. He has also carried a black bag with a strap. Authorities said he appears to be 30 to 40 years old.

In addition to the FBI and L.A. Sheriff’s Department, the Los Angeles and Fontana police departments also are investigating.

Anyone with information about the suspect is asked to contact the FBI at (888) CANT-HIDE. Those who wish to remain anonymous may call (800) 222-TIPS or go to lacrimestoppers.org.

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UC Riverside student Senate urges divestment from firms working in West Bank

UC Riverside’s student Senate this week passed a controversial resolution urging the university system to divest from nine companies that the students contend are violating the human rights of Palestinians and aiding Israel’s occupation of the West Bank.

The move is part of a wave of similar measures under consideration, some successful and some not, at other UC campuses.

However, those advisory resolutions have no power over UC finances. The UC regents and other administrators have said they have no intention of any divestments focused on Israel.

Nevertheless, the UC Riverside matter passed the student Senate in an 11-5 vote, enough to avoid a veto by the undergraduate student body president, Liam Dow, who said he opposes the matter. In a letter to the campus, Dow said the divestment resolution “encourages biases instead of reconciliation, and creates counter-productive hostilities that divide the UCR campus.”

General Electric, Raytheon, Caterpillar and Hewlett-Packard are among the firms the resolution described as aiding the Israeli repression of Palestinians. The document said it was important for UC to promote values “of human rights, equality and dignity for all people without distinction.”

The student Senate at UC San Diego debated a similar item  this week and delayed action until next week. In November, a UC Irvine student panel approved divestment and in 2010 so did a UC Berkeley student government group, only to have it vetoed by the student president there.

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Former girls basketball coach charged with sex abuse of his players

This post has been updated. See below for details.

A former girls basketball coach at Eisenhower High School in Rialto pleaded not guilty Friday to four counts of sexual abuse involving members of his team.

The incidents allegedly occurred in 2004, police say. The coach, Floyd Eddings Jr., left the school that same year, according to a statement from the Rialto Police Department.

Eddings, 55, is currently employed as a campus security guard for a high school in the Corona-Norco Unified School District, the statement said.

[Updated, 4:22 p.m.: Corona-Norco Unified said Eddings has been placed on administrative leave. He has been employed as a security attendant since 2007, the district said.]

An arrest warrant in the case was issued Wednesday. The charges against Eddings are sexual penetration on a minor by force or duress; sexual penetration with a foreign object on a victim under 16 years old; and two counts of lewd or lascivious acts with a 14- or 15-year-old child.

Bail was set at $400,000, according to San Bernardino Superior Court records.

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School board member convicted of pimping gets 14 years

A Moreno Valley School Board member convicted of running a prostitution ring was sentenced Friday to 14 years in state prison.

Riverside County Superior Court Judge Gary Tranbarger brushed aside a request by Mike Rios’ defense attorney to limit the sentence to four years in prison, or probation.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Michael Brusselback said Rios' actions and his lack of remorse called for a stiff prison sentence.

"Given his position on the school board, the crimes he committed are a breach of the public trust of the highest order," Brusselback said.

The prosecutor said Rios continues to claim that he did nothing wrong and that he was the victim of a political vendetta, an assertion Brusselback described as a "warped sense of reality."

Rios, shackled and dressed in a bright orange jail outfit, showed little emotion as the judge read the sentence in a Riverside courtroom.

In February, a jury convicted Rios, a member of the school board since 2010, of 23 felony charges, including a dozen counts of pimping, five counts of pandering and six counts of insurance fraud.

State high court overturns murder conviction in deputy's death

The California Supreme Court on Thursday unanimously overturned the first-degree murder conviction  of a man who stole appliances and caused a fatal accident an hour later when a stove fell off his truck.

Cole Allen Wilkins of Long Beach was convicted under the "felony-murder rule," which says a defendant may be convicted of first-degree murder if someone dies while the suspect is committing a felony, such as a burglary or rape. Intention to kill is not required for conviction.

Relying on that rule, an Orange County jury convicted Wilkins in 2008 of first-degree murder because he stole appliances, a felony, and caused the death of Los Angeles County Sheriff's Deputy David Piquette when a stove fell onto the road.

Piquette, who was driving to work from his home in Corona, was killed when he swerved to avoid the stove on the 91 Freeway in Anaheim and was crushed by a cement truck.

The judge had instructed the jury that Wilkins, then 32, could be found guilty of murder if the fatal accident and the burglary were part of a “continuous transaction.” The jury convicted, and Wilkins was sentenced to 25 years to life.

The state high court overturned Wilkins’ conviction on the grounds the jury had not been instructed properly. If a perpetrator of a felony has already escaped and reached a “temporary place of safety,” any death he then causes is not felony murder, the court said.

“The prosecution did not dispute that at the time of the accident the burglary had not yet been discovered, and defendant was at least 60 miles and one hour from the crime scene, had made a telephone call a half-hour earlier, and had been driving at a normal speed,” Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye wrote for a unanimous court.

“Given the evidence, there is a reasonable probability that a jury properly instructed … would have concluded that defendant had reached a place of temporary safety before the fatal act occurred and was not guilty of felony murder.”

Orange County prosecutors will now have to decide whether to retry Wilkins.

Deputy Atty. Gen. Steven T. Oetting complained the court had created a “new rule” that would reduce criminals’ culpability. He said Wilkins did not tie down the appliances after burglarizing a home under construction because he wanted to get away from the crime scene as fast as possible.

“He is not just some guy who just failed to secure his load,” Oetting said. “The reason he failed to secure his load is because of the burglary, and this ruling fails to take this into account.”

Richard A. Levy, who represented Wilkins on appeal, called the ruling a clarification of existing law and “absolutely the correct decision.”

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Photo: Cole Allen Wilkins. Credit: Orange County district attorney's office

Skateboarder charged in Girl Scout cookie money theft

The man who allegedly swooped past a Girl Scout troop on a skateboard, swiping more than $550 in cookie money, has been charged with petty theft and giving false information to a police officer.

The San Bernardino County district attorney filed the charges against Collin Christian Sawyer, 20, Wednesday morning. Sawyer was scheduled to be arraigned at Superior Court in Victorville this afternoon.

According to the district attorney’s complaint, Sawyer provided a false name when he was arrested. Both charges are misdemeanors.

Girl Scout Troop 1303 was selling cookies in front of a grocery store in Phelan on Sunday when Sawyer allegedly skated by and swiped a bag containing the money. One of the Girl Scouts ran after him and fell, suffering minor scrapes and scratches, according to police.

Sawyer, who lives in Phelan, was spotted near a gas station about 7:20 p.m. Monday and taken into custody, according to the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department.

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