Ronald Vikash Chand of Santa Ana allegedly perpetrated the attack in 2023 inside the Planet Fitness at 3685 Grand Oaks, near Cajalco Road.

Chand is charged with attempted murder, assault with a deadly weapon resulting in great bodily injury, mayhem and vandalism.

For most of the last year, the defendant has undergone a series of psychiatric evaluations to determine whether he is mentally competent to stand trial. The doctors assigned to the case evidently did not find any indications of psychological disorders.

During a status hearing at the Riverside Hall of Justice Monday, Riverside County Superior Court Judge Melissa Hale conferred with the prosecution and defense regarding scheduling, and both sides agreed to be prepared to move forward with trial proceedings at the end of February.

The defendant is being held on $1 million bail at the Robert Presley Jail.

According to the Corona Police Department, a 41-year-old Riverside man, whose name was not released, was in the fitness club parking lot when Chand confronted him shortly after 9 a.m. March 14, 2023, wielding a hatchet and knife.

Without provocation, the defendant allegedly struck the victim with the hatchet and stabbed him with the knife, resulting in “stab wounds to the upper body,” prompting the man to retreat into the Planet Fitness, Sgt. Jason Waldon said.

“While inside, Chand held the victim at knifepoint for a short period before being taken to the ground by the victim and was disarmed and detained with the assistance of bystanders,” Waldon said.

He said gym staff called 911, and patrol officers reached the location minutes later, taking Chand into custody without further incident.

“The victim was transported to a local hospital for treatment of non- life-threatening injuries,” the sergeant said, adding that the man ultimately recovered.

Chand suffered an unspecified minor injury and was also treated before being taken to jail.

A possible motive for the attack was unknown.

Chand has no documented prior felony convictions in Riverside County.

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Alexis Daniel Rosas of Indio, 29, was previously convicted of first-degree murder and attempted murder, along with the two special circumstance allegations and sentence-enhancing gun and great bodily injury allegations for the 2019 slaying of Makayla Jean Massey, also known as Anita Garcia, of Victorville.

John Hall of the Riverside County District Attorney’s Office confirmed the terms of the sentence to City News Service.

Rosas’ girlfriend, 32-year-old Maury Duarte, was convicted in June of first-degree murder and special circumstance allegations of killing a witness to a crime and lying in wait, as well as being an accessory to a felony. She was sentenced in August to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

The jury recommended capital punishment for Rosas following a penalty trial for him alone.

Prosecutors did not seek a death sentence for Duarte. During an August hearing at the Larson Justice Center in Indio, Riverside County Superior Court Judge Jennifer Gerard imposed the sentence required by law for her.

Rosas was previously being without bail at the Byrd Detention Center in Murrieta.

According to a trial brief filed by the District Attorney’s Office, Massey’s boyfriend, identified only as “Abram,” had been at odds with Rosas, a documented member of an Indio street gang, bearing the moniker “Trigger,” for some time. The conflict had resulted in the defendant harassing and attacking the victim on multiple occasions.

On June 24, 2019, the feud led to Rosas going to the abandoned house in the 45-400 block of Oasis Street where Abram and Massey were residing and shooting him in the chest — an act which the victim witnessed and detailed to Indio police immediately afterward, prosecutors said.

Abram was hospitalized but ultimately recovered from the wound.

After the shooting, Massey checked into a Motel 6 in Indio for her own safety, but Rosas learned of her whereabouts and that she had made contact with police, prompting him to plan her murder.

He enlisted Duarte’s assistance, and they used her 2005 Toyota Camry for transport. In the pre-dawn hours of June 25, 2019, Rosas went to the victim’s motel room and persuaded her to come out, then physically restrained her inside the Toyota, which Duarte drove to a vacated ranch in the 82-600 block of Avenue 53 in Thermal, according to court papers.

Once at the location, Rosas shoved the victim out of the car and ordered her to start walking toward a gate.

“The defendant kicked her in the stomach, causing her to fall to the ground,” the brief said. “Rosas then shot Makayla five times. One shot was to her head. He knew he had killed her after the second shot, but he continued to shoot bullets into her body.”

He left the victim where she was slain, and he and Duarte headed back toward Indio, dumping the .380-caliber semiautomatic pistol that he’d used to kill Massey on a roadside.

Massey’s remains were discovered within a couple of days, leading to a sheriff’s investigation that pointed to Rosas as the murderer.

The defendants were arrested without incident on Avenue 42 in Indio on June 30, 2019.

Court papers claimed both Rosas and Duarte had conspired in retail fraud, but neither had documented prior felony convictions in Riverside County.

California currently has a moratorium in place on executions, ordered by Gov. Gavin Newsom in 2019. The last execution in the state occurred in 2006.

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Adam Slater, 53, is charged with felony counts of murder, attempted murder, assault on a child under 8 years old resulting in death, assault with a deadly weapon and child concealing, and one misdemeanor count of resisting arrest.

He also faces a special circumstance allegation of committing a murder during the commission of a kidnapping, which makes him eligible for the death penalty if the Riverside County District Attorney’s Office decides to pursue it, and a sentence-enhancing allegation of using a knife in the commission of a murder.

The defendant’s trial is scheduled to begin on Jan. 24, according to case records.

Slater was arrested May 7, 2020 in connection with a spate of alleged crimes the previous day that culminated in a rollover crash on Highway 74 near Pinyon Crest, where he allegedly threw his daughter over “a steep cliff into a ravine,” according to sheriff’s Sgt. Ben Ramirez.

Slater remains jailed without bail at the Larry D. Smith Correctional Facilty in Banning.

According to the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department, the series of events on May 6, 2020, began about 14 miles from the crash site in the 41000 block of Washington Street, outside the Southwest Community Church in Indian Wells, where deputies responded to a stabbing call at about 8:30 a.m. that was described as a “domestic violence incident.”

Deputies located an injured woman who was taken to a hospital with multiple stab wounds.
Slater and the woman — who was six months pregnant at the time of the attack — were married, and the year-old daughter was theirs together, officials said.

Following the attack, Slater allegedly sped away in a vehicle with the child. Deputies learned soon afterward that a rollover crash reported on Highway 74 around six miles south of Palm Desert could be connected to the original call.

According to sheriff’s officials, passing motorists attempted to help Slater and his daughter escape the wreckage, but he allegedly stabbed one man attempting to help rescue his daughter.

“The suspect then took the girl from the arms of the male he stabbed. Multiple witnesses saw the suspect take the child and throw her over a steep cliff into a ravine,” according to a sheriff’s department statement.

California Highway Patrol Officer Graham Aanestad testified during a preliminary hearing that he searched the area at the bottom of the cliff and saw hair peaking out from a pile of rocks. The child was found there, and pronounced dead at the scene.

It was unclear if she was already dead prior to being thrown off the cliff. But Investigator Dario Hernandez with the sheriff’s Central Homicide Unit testified that an autopsy determined her cause of death was multiple stab wounds to the chest.

“The injuries to the chest were consistent with an injury possibly from a knife or some sort of object,” Hernandez said.

After allegedly throwing the girl, Slater ran down into a canyon, where deputies detained him after a short foot chase, and he was taken to a hospital for treatment of injuries connected to the crash, authorities said. Slater was discharged from the hospital the next day and arrested shortly afterward.

It was unclear if the man he allegedly stabbed required medical treatment.

Slater was in violation of the terms of his parole, according to California’s Megan’s Law website.

He was convicted in 1995 of sexually penetrating a victim with a foreign object by force and served about two years in state prison before being released in 1997.

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Someone had put cotton balls in the box so postal workers wouldn’t hear the snake’s rattle, the 60-year-old truck driver said.

“That’s attempted murder, if you ask me,” he said.

Bowles picked up the package Thursday and asked a friend to open it as they drove away from the post office that serves the Mojave Desert town near Joshua Tree National Park.

“When she opened the box, she threw it at me almost,” he said. “And she says, ‘There’s a snake in there.’”

Bowles pulled over and put the box by the curb, then used a stick to open it. He estimates the snake was about 2 feet long. He called 911 and Animal Control.

Animal Control picked up the snake, and a San Bernardino County deputy took a report that was forwarded to the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, which is handling the investigation, the Sheriff’s Department said.

Patricia Mendoza, a postal inspector, said in an emailed statement that an investigation is ongoing.

The package, marked “fragile” in black marker, listed as a return address a home in Palm Coast, Fla., but tracking information indicates that it was mailed May 3 in Hayward, Calif.

“This is a first for me,” said Rick Boyd, the Animal Control supervisor for the city of Twentynine Palms, who responded to the incident. It was a Western rattlesnake, he said. The species, also known as the Northern Pacific rattlesnake, is common in Northern California but isn’t usually found in Southern California.

Boyd said he doesn’t believe it’s possible that the snake slithered into the package while it was in transit and noted that it appears to have been intentionally mailed.

Assassination attempts by rattlesnake have precedent in Southern California.

In 1978, Los Angeles trial attorney Paul Morantz nearly died after he was bitten by a rattlesnake that someone had placed in his mailbox. Police arrested Charles Dederich, who led the Synanon paramilitary cult, against which Morantz had won a judgment, on suspicion of conspiracy to commit murder; they also arrested two of Dederich’s foot soldiers, known as Imperial Marines, on suspicion of attempted murder.

The preliminary hearing featured the snake, floating in formaldehyde, introduced as Exhibit 1. All three men pleaded no contest, avoiding trial.

While the Twentynine Palms incident may seem improbable, it is possible, according to local wildlife experts.

Rattlesnakes are resilient — they can survive for up to six months without food or water, as long as temperatures aren’t too extreme, said Danielle Wall, a snake wrangler who serves the high desert.

“It is 100% possible for a snake to survive in the mail like that, as long as they don’t overheat or freeze,” she said.

Bowles on Monday learned that a second, virtually identical package was recently mailed to his home in Florida. He has directed family members to take it to the police station rather than open it, he said.

“I’m trying to figure out, do I have any enemies?” he said.

“I’m not a gangster,” he added. “I’m a truck driver.”

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SAN JACINTO, CA — A man accused of gunning down a 31-year-old San Jacinto woman and trying to kill her companion in a premeditated attack nearly seven years ago pleaded not guilty Friday to first-degree murder and other charges.

Daniel Antonio Cortez Acevedo, 27, of San Jacinto allegedly killed Anna Meza for undisclosed reasons in 2017.

Along with murder, Acevedo is charged with attempted murder, a special-circumstance allegation of lying in wait and sentence-enhancing gun and great bodily injury allegations.

The defendant was arraigned before Riverside County Superior Court Judge Francisco Navarro, who scheduled a felony settlement conference for June 7 at the Banning Justice Center.

Acevedo is being held on $1 million bail at the Robert Presley Jail in Riverside.

Sheriff’s Sgt. Jesse Martinez said the identity of Meza’s alleged killer required a “lengthy investigation” by Central Homicide Unit detectives.

The victim was walking with a man identified in court documents only as “J.M.” in the 100 block of North Dillon Avenue, near Main Street, on the afternoon of Nov. 12, 2017, when Acevedo allegedly approached them and pulled a .38-caliber semiautomatic pistol, opening fire, according to investigators and prosecutors.

Meza was shot to death in the street. J.M. was not wounded.

The assailant, then unknown, fled the scene.

Investigators initially had little information on the circumstances and asked for the public’s assistance, but few clues surfaced.

Martinez did not disclose what detectives uncovered that finally led them to Acevedo, or why he allegedly targeted the victims.

He was taken into custody without incident following a traffic stop in San Jacinto on April 12.

Court records show the defendant has a prior misdemeanor conviction for unlawful possession of a firearm.

The post RivCo Cold Case: Suspected Killer Answers Charges 6 Years Later appeared first on The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle.

File # A240190015

Details:

On January 19, 2024, at 8:30 a.m., deputies from the Riverside Sheriff’s Colorado River Station responded to the 10000 block of Vernon Street in the unincorporated area of Blythe regarding an assault with a deadly weapon. When deputies arrived, they detained the suspect, a 14-year-old-juvenile. During the investigation, it was discovered the suspect assaulted another 14-year-old juvenile with a knife during a physical altercation. The victim sustained multiple stab wounds. The victim was transported to a local hospital and currently in stable condition. The suspect was arrested and booked into Indio Juvenile Hall for attempted murder. There are no outstanding suspects and no threat to the community. This is an ongoing investigation, and no additional details will be release.

Anyone with additional information regarding this case is urged to contact Sergeant Ed Reynoso by calling (760) 921-7900.

For media inquiries regarding this incident please contact the Media Information Bureau.

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File #  I232270008

Details:

On August 15, 2023, at 6:03 a.m., deputies received a 911 call of an apartment building on fire in the 140 block of Tiger Lane, San Jacinto. Upon arrival, the deputies discovered a structure on fire. The deputies also discovered two adults were inside sleeping when the fire started and had narrowly escaped the fire by jumping from an exterior window. During their investigation, the deputies learned the tenants had a recent dispute with a woman over the death of a pet dog. Investigators from the Hemet – San Jacinto Investigations Bureau assumed the case. The investigators identified Kenyetta Taylor, a 45-year-old woman from Riverside as the person who intentionally set the apartment building on fire.

Taylor was located and arrested at a residence in the 200 block of Cape Elizabeth Way, Riverside. Taylor was booked at Cois Byrd Detention Center for attempted murder. Anyone with information on this case is encouraged to call Lead Investigator Ruben Martinez at the Hemet Sheriff’s Station by calling (951) 791-3400.

For media inquiries regarding this incident please contact the Media Information Bureau.

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The post Female Fire Starter Arrested for Attempted Murder appeared first on The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle.

File # D231320011

Details:

On Friday, May 12, 2023, at 9:15 a.m., deputies assigned to the Hemet Sheriff’s Station responded to a mobile home located in the 42000 Block of State Highway 74, East Hemet, regarding a man who just broke into a vacant mobile home at that location. The man, Steven Foster, a white 65-year-old resident of Hemet, was a former tenant of the same mobile home and had been recently evicted by the property owner. Foster threatened to be in possession of a firearm and was believed to be mentally unstable. When deputies arrived, they confirmed that a break-in had occurred, and Foster was still inside with a firearm. The deputies summoned the Sheriff’s SWAT team, the Crisis Negotiation Team, and Community Behavioral Health Assessment Team to assist with de-escalating the situation and to take Foster safely into custody. During the negotiation Foster fired his firearm toward the deputies striking a Sheriff’s vehicle with several deputies nearby. After an hours-long negotiation, Foster was taken into custody without further incident.

He was taken to a local hospital for medical evaluation. Foster will be charged with the attempted murder of a peace officer and being a previously convicted felon in possession of a firearm. No deputies or civilians were injured during the incident.

Anyone with information on this case is encouraged to call Investigator Bryan Jauert at the Hemet Sheriff’s Station by calling (951) 791-3400.

For media inquiries regarding this incident please contact the Media Information Bureau.

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File # MG230560017

Details:

On February 25, 2023, at 10:37 PM, deputies from the Riverside County Sheriff’s Office, assigned to the Cabazon Station, responded to the 49500 block of Seminole Drive, Cabazon reference a female screaming for help. Deputies arrived and located the female who had sustained several stab wounds.

Sheriff’s Investigators responded and assumed the investigation. The investigation revealed the suspect identified as, Jesse Romero 46-year-old resident of Bellflower, had fled the scene.

On February 26, 2023, at 1:17 am, Romero was located and taken into custody for attempted murder.

There are no outstanding suspects and anyone with information about this incident is encouraged to call Corporal Stavness or Investigator Birmingham at the Cabazon Sheriff’s Station at 951-922-7100 or the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department at 951-776-1099.

For media inquiries regarding this incident please contact the Media Information Bureau.

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File # T230520009

Details:

On Tuesday, February 21, 2023, at 2:53 a.m., deputies responded to the 45300 block of Garden Square, Palm Desert, regarding an assault with a deadly weapon. The investigation revealed both victims were followed to the location by two suspects, 18-year-old Jorge Morales and 19-year-old Jayden Garcia, residents of Cathedral City. Morales and Garcia were known to both victims. One victim was struck multiple times and sustained a single gunshot wound to his face. He was transported to a local hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. The other victim, who was uninjured, had allegedly been stalked by Morales for several weeks before the assault.

Palm Desert Sheriff’s Station patrol deputies, the Palm Desert Investigations Bureau, Palm Desert Burglary Suppression Unit, and Desert Regional SWAT apprehended Morales and Garcia as they attempted to flee a residence in the 68700 block of 33rd Avenue, Cathedral City.

Morales and Garcia were booked at the John Benoit Detention Center. Morales was booked in for attempted murder, stalking, and conspiracy. Garcia was booked in for assault with a deadly weapon and conspiracy.

Anyone with information on this crime is asked to call Investigator Lugo at 760-836-1600.

For media inquiries regarding this incident please contact the Media Information Bureau.

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