File # MA230900064

Details:

On Friday, March 31, 2023, at 11:51 p.m., deputies assigned to the Lake Matthews Sheriff’s Station were dispatched to a shooting that occurred on the 18000 block of Gentian Avenue, in Woodcrest. Upon arriving, deputies were directed into a residence where they located an adult female victim suffering from a gunshot wound. Medical aid was summoned, and the victim was transported to a nearby hospital where she succumbed to her injury and was pronounced deceased. A crime scene was secured and the Central Homicide Unit responded to assume the investigation. The victim was identified as Isabella Ruiz, 21-year-old resident of Riverside. The suspect, Brady Castillo, 21-year-old resident of Riverside was booked into jail for the listed charge. There are no outstanding suspects.

If anyone has information regarding this investigation, they are encouraged to call Master Investigator D. Sandoval of the Central Homicide Unit at 951-955-2777 or Investigator Cuevas of the Lake Matthews Sheriff’s Station at 951-272-5600.

Citizens may also submit a tip using the Sheriff’s Homicide Tipline online form.

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

Find your latest news here at the Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle

The post Manslaughter appeared first on The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — California’s attorney general has filed manslaughter charges against a former Los Angeles police officer who was off duty when he fatally shot a mentally ill man who was shopping with his parents in 2019.

Officer Salvador Sanchez, who was a seven-year veteran of the LAPD at the time of the shooting, was arrested Monday in Riverside County. He faces one count of voluntary manslaughter and two counts of assault with a semiautomatic firearm. The LAPD says he was terminated from the agency in July 2020, but it declined further comment on Sanchez’s arrest.

Sanchez was with his young son in a Costco in Corona when he was attacked from behind by 32-year-old Kenneth French. Sanchez was knocked to the ground and quickly opened fire, fatally wounding French and critically injuring French’s parents, Russell and Paola French.

Sanchez had told investigators he believed French had a gun and that his life and his son’s life were in immediate danger. Authorities said French was not armed and was moving away from Sanchez when the officer opened fire.

Kenneth French was nonverbal and had recently been taken off his medication for mental illness due to other health issues, the family’s lawyer previously said, adding that the change may have affected his behavior that night. French’s parents have filed a federal lawsuit against Sanchez and the city.

The charges filed by California Attorney General Rob Bonta came after the Riverside County district attorney declined to charge Sanchez criminally when a grand jury did not bring an indictment in September 2019.

Riverside County District Attorney Mike Hestrin previously said Sanchez believed he had been shot in the head and that a gunman was on the loose in the store after he and his 1½-year-old son were knocked to the ground in French’s unprovoked assault.

David Winslow, Sanchez’s attorney, called his client’s arrest a “political stunt that does absolutely nothing to protect the public.”

“The arrest of Sal Sanchez is a product of the politically motivated program by the California Attorney General to prosecute police officers,” Winslow said in a statement Monday. “Sal was not acting as a police officer when he was attacked. He was off duty acting as a father in self-defense and protecting his child.”

Bonta’s office in July announced that state investigators would respond to police fatal shootings of unarmed civilians after lawmakers passed legislation last year amid civil unrest over the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis officer.

“Where there’s reason to believe a crime has been committed, we will seek justice,” Bonta said Monday in a news release. “That’s exactly what these charges are about: pursuing justice after an independent and thorough review of the evidence and the law. Ultimately, any loss of life is a tragedy, and being licensed to carry a gun doesn’t mean you’re not accountable for how you use it. No matter who you are, nobody is above the law.”

The Riverside district attorney’s office said Monday it would assist Bonta’s office in the prosecution, but noted that its own investigation ended when the grand jury did not find enough probable cause to move forward with the case.

The Los Angeles Board of Police Commissioners ruled last year that Sanchez had violated departmental policy in the shooting.

The French family’s attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Find your latest news here at the Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle

The post Ex-LA officer charged in fatal shooting of mentally ill man appeared first on The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle.

On January 23, 2021, the Lake Elsinore Station Investigations Bureau along with assistance from California Fire Law Enforcement Officers, assumed the investigation regarding a residential fire that had occurred in the 32900 block of Blackwell Boulevard, in the unincorporated area of Lakeland Village. During the fire, three individuals (two juveniles, one dependent adult) perished.

On March 18, 2021, the Lake Elsinore Station Investigations Bureau along with the Lake Elsinore Special Enforcement Team (SET) and California Fire Law Enforcement Officers, arrested Devinn Elysee Fisher, age 29, a resident of Lakeland Village. Fisher was transported to Cois Byrd Detention Center and booked on the charges of involuntary manslaughter, child endangerment, elder abuse and unlawfully causing a fire.

This is an ongoing investigation. Anyone with additional information is encouraged to contact Investigator Stites at the Lake Elsinore Sheriff’s Station (951) 245-3300.

As a reminder, “Community Policing” involves partnerships between law enforcement and community members. Business owners and residents are encouraged to report criminal activity directly to law enforcement by calling Sheriff’s Dispatch at (951) 776-1099, or by calling 911 if the matter is an emergency.

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

Find your latest news here at the Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle

The post Involuntary Manslaughter appeared first on The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The captain of a scuba diving boat that caught fire and sank off the coast of California last year, killing 34 people who were trapped below deck, was indicted Tuesday on federal manslaughter charges for one of the deadliest maritime disasters in recent U.S. history.

Jerry Boylan, 67, was charged with 34 counts of seaman’s manslaughter for “misconduct, negligence and inattention” by failing to train his crew, conduct fire drills and have a roving night watchman on the Conception when fire broke out Sept. 2, 2019, the indictment said.

“As a result of the alleged failures of Captain Boylan to follow well-established safety rules, a pleasant holiday dive trip turned into a hellish nightmare as passengers and one crew member found themselves trapped in a fiery bunkroom with no means of escape,” U.S. Attorney Nick Hanna said in a statement.

Boylan and four other crew members, who had all been sleeping, escaped from the flaming boat after he made a breathless mayday call. All 33 passengers and one crew member perished in the bunkroom.

Some of the dead were found with their shoes on, leading to speculation they were trying to escape but were trapped by flames that blocked a stairwell and a small hatch that were the only exits to the deck above. All died of smoke inhalation, according to coroner’s reports.

The rare federal charges against Boylan were brought under a pre-Civil War law aimed at holding steamboat captains and crew responsible for watery disasters that were far more frequent at the time.

Each count carries a possible 10-year prison term with conviction.

Federal prosecutors said they had informed Boylan’s attorneys of the indictment, and he was expected to surrender to federal authorities in the coming weeks.

A public defender who represents Boylan did not immediately return phone and email messages seeking comment from The Associated Press. His former defense lawyer, Michael Lipman, said they had expected the charges for more than a year.

Federal safety investigators faulted the owners of the vessel for a lack of oversight, but they were not charged with any crime.

“I hate the term accident in this case because, in my opinion, it is not an accident if you fail to operate your company safely,” National Transportation Safety Board member Jennifer Homendy said at a hearing in October.

The company that owned the boat, Truth Aquatics Inc., has filed suit in federal court under a provision in maritime law to avoid payouts to the families of the victims. The families of 32 victims have filed claims against boat owners Glen and Dana Fritzler and the company.

The cause of the fire was been under investigation for more there a year and may be impossible to pinpoint. It began in an area on the main deck where divers had plugged in phones, flashlights and other items with combustible lithium ion batteries.

The fire happened on the final night of a three-day Labor Day weekend scuba diving excursion near Santa Cruz Island off Santa Barbara.

The 34 victims ranged from a new deckhand to scientists and engineers to parents with their teenage and adult children. They came from as far away as China, Singapore and India. Two passengers were celebrating birthdays.

The sole crewmember who died, Allie Kurtz, 26, had previously worked as a cook on another Truth Aquatics boat and was thrilled with her promotion. Her family said she loved the water and had childhood aspirations of becoming a pirate.

Marine biologist Kristy Finstad, who co-owned Worldwide Diving Adventures and chartered the Labor Day Weekend trip, first put on a dive tank at the age of nine and had done hundreds of dives in the rugged, wind-swept Channel Islands, off Santa Barbara’s coast.

Five members of the Quitasol family took the trip to celebrate their father’s birthday. Sisters Angela, Nicole and Evan joined their father, Michael Quitasol, and their stepmother, Fernisa Sison. The family had been scuba diving together for at least a decade.

Before the disaster, Boylan and Truth Aquatics had a good reputation with customers and the boating community in Santa Barbara, where the company had a fleet of three boats. The Conception had passed its two most recent Coast Guard safety inspections.

But NTSB investigators condemned the company and captain for a litany of issues including failing to train the crew on emergency procedures.

Ryan Sims, who had been working aboard the boat for just three weeks, told investigators he had asked the captain to discuss emergency plans the day before the fire.

“When we have time,” Boylan replied, Sims reported.

“I didn’t know what the procedures were supposed to be,” Sims said, echoing what other crew members told investigators.

The NTSB said the lack of a night watch allowed the fire to spread quickly and trap victims below deck. The agency also faulted the Coast Guard for not enforcing the night watch requirement, citing records showing no one cited for failing to provide one since 1991.

Crew members told investigators they were asleep on the upper deck when the fire broke out below around 3 a.m.

They said they made repeated attempts to reach those below deck. But the flames and heat kept them back and eventually forced them to jump overboard.

Boylan made a mayday call at 3:14 a.m. saying, “I can’t breathe,” before abandoning ship.

Sims, who has sued the boat’s owners, broke a leg jumping from the boat.

The crew climbed into a dinghy and motored to a yacht anchored nearby to call again for help.

“One thing we never heard was any screams or banging or anything from the boat, both while we were on it or when we were close,” Cullen Molitor, the boat’s second captain, told investigators.

Find your latest news here at the Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle

The post California boat captain indicted in fire that killed 34 appeared first on The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle.

By City News Service, News Partner

MORENO VALLEY, CA — A man who ran over and killed a 76-year-old pedestrian in Moreno Valley while driving under the influence was convicted Tuesday of felony vehicular manslaughter.

Following two days of deliberations, a Riverside jury found Roben Gaby Noujaim, 36, of Moreno Valley guilty of the manslaughter count, as well as driving under the influence resulting in great bodily injury and a misdemeanor count of driving under the influence of a controlled substance.

Noujaim, who is being held without bail at the Robert Presley Jail in Riverside, is slated to be sentenced on Jan. 8 at the Riverside Hall of Justice.

The defendant was arrested April 22 following a lengthy investigation by sheriff’s detectives into the September 2019 death of Lorenzo Romero, also of Moreno Valley.

Sheriff’s Deputy Rafael Lopez said the victim was walking on Graham Street, just north of Old Valley Drive, when he was struck by a sedan about 7:45 p.m. on Sept. 10, 2019. Paramedics pronounced him dead at the scene roughly 25 minutes later.

Noujaim did not flee and was taken into custody on the spot, but he was released from jail that week pending further investigation.

He had no documented prior felony convictions in Riverside County.

Find your latest news here at the Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle

The post DUI Driver Guilty Of Manslaughter In Moreno Valley Death appeared first on The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle.