A busy day for the Homicide Watch blog:
Storma Del' Andrae
1--Thank you for the notes about the coverage of the beating and subsequent death of Storma Del' Andrae. A story looking at how the 87-year-old woman crossed paths with the suspects ran on the front page of today's The Press-Enterprise.
This morning, it was announced that charges against San Bernardino teens Cesar Pulido and Mike "Junior" Garcia have been amended to include murder. Del' Andrae died Friday, nearly three weeks after she was dragged from her bed and beaten in her mobile home on the Highland-San Bernardino city line.
Mike Junior Garcia
Cesar Pulido
Pulido and Garcia, both 16, now are charged with murder, first-degree residential robbery and burglary, elder abuse, assault with a deadly weapon and receiving stolen property. The charges come with special allegations of causing injury that caused Del' Andrae to become paralyzed and comatose because of a brain injury, according to the most recent criminal complaint filed in San Bernardino County Superior Court.
In addition, a 22-year-old friend of the teens, Nelson Soto, is charged with being an accessory after the fact. Police allege that he held some of Del' Andrae's property after the robbery and helped Pulido flee to Arizona.
The three defendants are next scheduled to appear in court on March 26.
Tyrane Thomas
2--A San Bernardino woman who had been jailed on suspicion of stabbing her boyfriend to death Friday night will not be charged, officials said today. Sequoia Gaines, 25, was released from jail Monday after prosecutors turned down her case.
Gaines' live-in boyfriend, 30-year-old Tyrane Thomas, was stabbed while inside the couple's North Guthrie Street apartment. San Bernardino police Lt. Scott Paterson said today that prosecutors felt the circumstances, as well as the couple's history, did not support a murder charge.
Last month, Gaines requested a temporary restraining order against Thomas, who had a prior spousal abuse conviction, court records show. He served two years in state prison.
The prosecutor's decision means that the killing is considered a justifiable homicide -- and will not be reported to the FBI's Uniform Crime Reports as a murder.
"It was pretty well investigated," said San Bernardino County Supervising Deputy District Attorney Rick Young, "and it appears to be just what it is: a case of self defense."
Subscribe to this blog's feed(s):