Alexander Ravy Vanny, 35, of Hemet, was convicted in December of stalking, possession of child pornography, unauthorized use of protected electronic data, maliciously destroying a wireless device, witness intimidation, illicit eavesdropping, using a concealed camera to invade privacy, illegal use of a tracking device, interference with a traffic control device and possession of a firearm in violation of a protective order, with a sentence-enhancing allegation of perpetrating a felony while on bail.

The Indio jury assigned the case hung 10-2 in favor of convicting Vanny of kidnapping. Prosecutors initially considered retrying Vanny on that count but ultimately decided against it and allowed sentencing proceedings to move forward before Superior Court James Hawkins at the Larson Justice Center on Friday.

Deputy District Attorney Jess Walsh told jurors that Vanny was unquestionably guilty, engaging in criminal conduct before being fired by the sheriff’s department.

At the outset of the trial, Walsh recounted the offenses involving the two principal victims, a former sheriff’s Explorer scout identified only as “Leslie,” and the defendant’s one-time fiancee, a mother of two identified only as “Madeline.”

In the latter case, Vanny became obsessive, unable to cope with their split in the summer of 2024.

After she went out on a date, the then-lawman secretly followed her and the man, whose identity wasn’t disclosed, waiting until they were inside her Menifee residence, then setting up an audio device outside the bedroom window to record the sounds of her and the other man engaging in sex. After waiting a moment or two, Vanny forced his way into the apartment and challenged the man to a fight, according to the prosecution.

Court papers said when Madeline attempted to use her mobile phone to call 911, the defendant damaged it.

Among the most serious allegations was Vanny’s following Madeline to Chappies Bar in Hemet and demanding that she “leave and come home with him,” the prosecution said. When the woman rejected him, Vanny “forcibly threw her into his truck,” according to court documents.

“The defendant then drove her, without her consent, to his home … some 17 miles and 30 minutes,” the prosecution stated.

Defense attorney Quintin Swanson presented a different picture, describing his client as the gallant type, rushing to “save” Madeline from drinking and driving after the two of them had a spat.

She filed a restraining order against him, but in defiance of that order, Vanny continued to carry around his personal firearm.

Walsh said the deputy stuck “tracking devices” onto her car so he could monitor her travels at all times.

The defendant became sexually involved with 18-year-old Leslie, who looked upon him as a mentor, regularly exchanging texts with him, according to the prosecution.

Vanny procured video images of two teenagers engaging in sexual activity during a visit to an Orange County theme park and kept the matter, which was part of an investigation, on his personal mobile phone, intending to share it with the 18-year-old, Walsh said.

He said detectives documented the laundry list of offenses perpetrated by the defendant, including threats against Madeline, whom he tried to intimidate by telling her, “If you call the police, you go to jail.”

Swanson acknowledged his client “started a stupid relationship with the cadet, who was an adult,” while engaged to marry Madeline. The two were living together at the time, and the cheating led to their breakup.

Despite the separation, the attorney told the jury his client continued to pay some of his ex-fiancee’s expenses, including rent for her apartment.

Vanny was first arrested on June 22, 2024, and booked into the Banning jail but posted a $1 million bond and was released. He was placed on paid administrative leave, but within a few months, he was fired from the department.

While on bail, Vanny was separately charged with a slate of new offenses. He had been a sworn peace officer since he was hired by the sheriff’s department in 2016.

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Luis Ernesto Rosas, 19, of Moreno Valley, was arrested Monday following a two-week investigation by the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department into the slaying of Ronald Gargano.

Along with murder, Rosas was charged with a special circumstance allegation of lying in wait and a sentence-enhancing allegation of using a deadly weapon in the commission of a felony.

The defendant, who is being held without bail at the Robert Presley Jail, was slated to make his initial court appearance Thursday afternoon at the Riverside Hall of Justice.

According to sheriff’s Sgt. Mike Kelleher, on the morning of Jan. 18, Gargano was in the area of Foothill Avenue and Nuevo Road, just east of Perris, when he was assaulted by a then-unknown person for reasons not disclosed.

The victim was stabbed and left for dead.

Kelleher said witnesses discovered Gargano’s remains not long afterward, and when patrol deputies confirmed the nature of the man’s death, the case was turned over to the Central Homicide Unit, whose detectives ultimately uncovered evidence pointing to Rosas as the alleged assailant.

A possible motive was not disclosed.

The defendant was tracked down and taken into custody without incident on Dracaea Avenue in Moreno Valley.

He has no documented prior felony convictions in Riverside County.

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After deliberating just over a day, a Riverside jury returned with the verdict against Owen Skyler Shover, 23, of Hesperia, additionally finding true a special circumstance allegation of lying in wait for the death of Aranda Briones in 2019.

Jurors returned with their unanimous decision before the lunch hour Wednesday. Riverside County Superior Court Judge Timothy Hollenhorst scheduled a sentencing hearing for Oct. 25 at the Riverside Hall of Justice.

Shover, who is being held without bail at the Byrd Detention Center in Murrieta, faces a mandatory sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole.

His brother, 27-year-old Gary Anthony Shover of Hesperia, in March admitted being an accessory after the fact under a plea agreement with the District Attorney’s Office. He was sentenced to 12 months’ felony probation.

According to District Attorney Mike Hestrin’s trial brief, Aranda and Shover attended Moreno Valley High School in the fall of 2017.

The victim was a “troubled” youth whose parents were absent, and she had been adopted by her grandfather, Carl Horskotte, and resided with him from age 3 at his home on Via Vargas Drive, according to the brief.

Hestrin said that on the morning of Nov. 7, 2017, Aranda decided to join her friends, including Shover, in Community Park, rather than attend classes. A sheriff’s school resource officer looking for truants spotted the teenagers in the park and went to speak with them, prompting the youths to flee in different directions. Shover had a small-caliber handgun in his possession and tossed it at Aranda, yelling for her to hide it, according to court papers.

The victim became frightened and immediately threw it into a drainage canal. However, the deputy spotted her in the act and later detained and questioned her, along with school administrators, at which point she disclosed that Shover had been the one with the gun, Hestrin said.

The matter came before the local school board in February 2018, and members voted to expel Aranda and Shover. She enrolled in a nearby continuation school, while Shover moved out of his mother’s Moreno Valley home and relocated to his father’s residence and enrolled in a continuation school in Hesperia. But he was incensed over being expelled and what he evidently perceived as Aranda’s betrayal.

Sheriff’s Central Homicide Unit detectives later discovered a series of Snapchat, Facebook and other conversations initiated by the defendant from November 2018 to January 2019, during which he attempted to purchase a firearm, the brief said.

He eventually obtained one.

On Jan. 12, 2019, Shover contacted Aranda via text, inviting her to join him the following day while he made drug deliveries and “robs drug dealers,” the brief said. She agreed to meet him at Bayside Park, and the two connected shortly before 5 p.m. on Jan. 13, 2019. Hestrin said that with two of her friends watching, Aranda got into the defendant’s Nissan Versa, and the two headed north toward Box Springs Mountain.

She posted several pictures to social media within an hour, showing her and Shover in his car, expressing elation to be with her “homie,” who was letting her do some of the driving, according to the brief.

Through mobile phone tower “pings,” Moreno Valley’s Citywide Camera System and security cameras mounted outside area homes, the occupants of the Nissan were tracked around Box Springs Mountain for roughly 20 minutes. Court papers said the vehicle turned north toward San Bernardino shortly before 6 p.m., in the direction of a mobile home park.

While en route, Shover contacted his brother via Facebook, stating, “Be ready for tonight. Get shovels and lighter fluid ready,” according to the brief.

The defendant retrieved Gary Shover from the park, and the two headed north into the San Bernardino Mountains via state Routes 138 and 18. Between 8:33 p.m,. and 10:14 p.m., the defendant shut off his cell phone, making its signal unreadable. It reactivated after he reached his father’s home at 16210 Grevillea St., prosecutors said.

In the ensuing weeks, Aranda’s family and friends filed reports with the sheriff’s department, believing she had met with foul play. The investigation was initially handled as a missing person inquiry, but it “became a homicide investigation (because detectives) found extensive and compelling evidence that the defendant meticulously planned and carried out the murder of Aranda,” Hestrin wrote.

One of the salient points included a search of the Nissan, during which the blood detector Luminol was sprayed in the trunk, showing “the possible presence of a significant amount of blood that had pooled toward the bottom of the trunk, underneath the carpeting,” according to Hestrin.

DNA was procured from the vehicle, and he said it was ultimately determined to be a match to Aranda.

Neither Owen or Gary Shover had prior convictions.

Law enforcement personnel and volunteer groups have searched the mountains where they believe Aranda’s remains may have been disposed, but no trace of her has ever been found.

The post Murder Conviction Handed Down In Disappearance Of Aranda Briones appeared first on The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle.

The largest was reported late Thursday night near Aguanga, just east of Temecula. The magnitude 3.1 quake was reported at 11:45 p.m.

Then at 8:18 a.m. Friday, a magnitude 2.5 temblor was reported about 65 miles to the north near the San Bernardino County city of Loma Linda.

The larger jolt was felt across Southern California, according to reporting into the USGS.

The quakes follow two that struck the Lake Elsinore area Thursday morning. The first temblor was reported at 9:39 a.m. about 3.7 miles west of Lake Elsinore, according to the USGS. It was initially reported by the agency as a magnitude 4.0, then 3.9 before being confirmed as 3.6.

A magnitude 3.0 quake followed in the same area one minute later.

Both temblors were felt across Southern California, according to the USGS.

The two quakes occurred near the Elsinore Fault Zone, though it’s unclear what caused the activity. The fault is part of the trilateral split of the San Andreas fault system and is one of the largest in Southern California.

On Tuesday and Wednesday quakes rattled the desert area, with the largest registering a magnitude 3.4.

The Inland Empire quakes follow a magnitude 4.4 temblor that hit at 12:20 p.m. Monday near Highland Park in Los Angeles.

There were no immediate reports of injuries or damage from any of the earthquakes.

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A man accused of supplying a deadly dose of fentanyl to a 40-year-old Norco resident must stand trial for second-degree murder, a judge ruled Wednesday.

Johnnie Curtis Stevens, 40, of Norco was arrested in April following a months-long Riverside County Sheriff’s Department investigation into the death of Jason Schmuch.

At the end of a preliminary hearing Wednesday, Superior Court Judge Randall Stamen ruled there was sufficient evidence to bound Stevens over for trial on the murder count and scheduled a post-preliminary hearing arraignment for Aug. 30 at the Riverside Hall of Justice.

The defendant is being held in lieu of $1 million bail at the Byrd Detention Center in Murrieta.

According to sheriff’s Sgt. Sean Liebrand, on the morning of Nov. 19, 2023, deputies were called to the intersection of Roundup Road and Stagecoach Drive to investigate reports of a comatose man.
Schmuch was pronounced dead at the scene, Liebrand said.

“Deputies located evidence indicative of a fentanyl overdose,” he said.

The sheriff’s Overdose Death Investigations & Narcotics Unit was assigned to the case after it was confirmed “Schmuch died as a result of fentanyl poisoning,” according to the sergeant.

An initial search warrant was served at Stevens’ property in the 5000 block of Trail Street less than a day after the victim’s death. Liebrand said deputies seized “fentanyl, methamphetamine and (drug) paraphernalia” at the location.

Investigators additionally discovered the defendant’s daughter, whose identity wasn’t released, “had access to the narcotics,” Liebrand alleged. Stevens was initially booked into jail only for child endangerment, and he posted bail soon afterward.

The ODIN Unit’s investigation continued, culminating in sufficient evidence to seek a murder charge against the defendant, which prosecutors filed in mid-April.

Stevens has no documented prior felony convictions in Riverside County. His connection to the victim was not disclosed.

Since February 2021, more than two dozen individuals countywide have been charged with murder in connection with fentanyl poisonings.

In November, prosecutors closed the books on the county’s first fentanyl murder case to go before a jury, culminating in the conviction of 34- year-old Vicente David Romero, who was sentenced to 15 years to life in prison for the 2020 death of a Temecula woman. District Attorney Mike Hestrin said it was the first fentanyl murder conviction in the state.

According to public health statistics, there were 550 known fentanyl- related fatalities countywide in 2023, a 9% increase from 2022, when there were 503.

Fentanyl is manufactured in overseas labs, principally in China, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, which says the drug is smuggled across the U.S.-Mexico border by cartels.

Fentanyl is 80-100 times more potent than morphine and can be mixed into any number of street narcotics and prescription drugs, without a user knowing what he or she is consuming. Ingestion of only two milligrams can be fatal.

The post 2nd Degree Murder Trial Pending Following Norco Fentanyl Death appeared first on The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle.

“Fresh footwear, a new backpack stuffed with school supplies, a stylish haircut, a dental cleaning and exam, and an overall health physical” for the children comprised the two back-to-school fairs along with more than 2,300 community members who attended, according to the Office of Education. The first fair was held July 30 in the Lake Elsinore Unified School District at the Jean Hayman Training Center, and the other event was Aug. 3 in the Alvord Unified School District at La Sierra High School.

“The rising costs of school supplies and the student and parent expectations ahead of a new year can be stressful for families,” Riverside County Superintendent of Schools Edwin Gomez said in a statement. “A sense of physical and emotional wellness, and even a new pair of shoes or a backpack, can help build confidence for students and set a positive tone for the first day of the school year. We are grateful for our district partners who hosted these events for their communities, along with all of our partners who have generously donated time, services, and supplies.”

The free-admission resource fairs were open to students in foster care and families experiencing homelessness or at risk of being unhoused.

Participating service providers were GeriSmiles, All Kids Health and cosmetology students from Advance Beauty Techs Academy, and 32 community agencies attended to provide information to families and students.

Soles4Souls, an international nonprofit that fights poverty, donated 1,750 pairs of shoes and 4,000 pairs of socks. Soles4Shoes volunteers had a pop-up “shoe store” at the fairs working toward the organization’s goal of providing a new pair of shoes for every child.

Kaiser Foundation Health Plan Inc. conducted a backpack giveaway at the company’s three medical centers in Riverside County. Over 1,800 backpacks filled with school supplies were received from employees, patients and Kaiser’s vendors.

Bombas Socks, Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority and Supply Bank also provided donations.

More information on accessing services or other back-to-school needs is available from McKinney Vento Homeless Youth Services at studentservices@rcoe.us or Foster Youth Services Coordinating Program Unit at the Office of Education at 951-826-4700 or FYSCP@rcoe.us.

PSUSD Foundation announces $20K grant for students’ shoes

The Foundation for Palm Springs Unified School District received a $20,000 grant to buy new shoes for students for the upcoming school year, the organization announced Monday.

An Impact Grant from the H.N. and Frances C. Berger Foundation and News Channel 3 will help about 2,500 students who are socioeconomically disadvantaged, the foundation reported.

Over 97% of PSUSD students are disadvantaged, with approximately 12% living in unstable conditions and at least 2% confirmed to be experiencing homelessness, officials said.

“The Shoe Distribution Program is a simple yet powerful way to help the next generation in our community rise above their circumstances,” PSUSD Foundation Director Ellen Goodman said in a statement. “This type of support lays the groundwork for students to reach their full potential.”

This is the third annual Shoe Distribution Program, which is a partnership involving the PSUSD Board of Education, the district superintendent and the foundation, a nonprofit “that pilots and underwrites existing, underfunded initiatives,” foundation officials said.

A study found that 100% of students who received new shoes were “confident to express opinions with classmates,” compared with 35% who felt confident prior to receiving the gifted shoes, according to the foundation. The same study, which was not identified, also noted modest gains in academic confidence, social engagement and athletic confidence in just the first several weeks.

“Well-fitting shoes are a back-to-school essential, as important as backpacks and pencils,” Catharine Reed, vice president of charitable programs for the Berger Foundation, said in a statement. “The Foundation for PSUSD is addressing a fundamental need that is necessary for both physical health and psychological well-being.”

More information about the foundation and the Shoe Distribution Program is online at psusdfoundation.net/shoes.

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The man, Ricardo I. Flores, also known as Koyote the Blind, faces eight felony charges, including rape by force and aggravated sexual assault, according to the Riverside County District Attorney’s Office. The authorities said the acts occurred from 2012 to 2023. If convicted, Mr. Flores could face up to life in prison.

Mr. Flores, 59, who is being held in jail without bail, was arrested on Aug. 7 as he re-entered the country after a visit to Mexico, according to the Riverside County Sheriff. In a news release, the sheriff’s office said that some of the alleged crimes took place at an address that matched the location of Xicoco Shamanic Arts, an organization led by Mr. Flores in the city of Moreno Valley, about 65 miles east of Los Angeles.

The authorities said they believed there could be more victims and encouraged anyone with information to come forward.

Mr. Flores was arraigned on Aug. 9 in Riverside Superior Court. His next scheduled court appearance, on Aug. 23, will be a continuation of the arraignment, according to a statement from Riverside Superior Court.

A spokesman for the Riverside District Attorney’s Office said in an emailed statement that it did not comment on cases still under investigation or awaiting trial. The Riverside County Public Defenders Office, which is representing Mr. Flores, did not respond to repeated requests for comment.

Mr. Flores describes himself in online profiles as an exiled shaman — a person who claims to have access to spirits — originally from El Salvador. He also says he is an accomplished magician and yogi.

As Koyote the Blind, Mr. Flores has led a number of organizations and has written books and offered teachings revolving around esoteric spiritual ideas, according to his online biographies. Central to his teachings is a “healing system” and “ancient healing energy” called “Aka Dua.”

In various venues, Mr. Flores has also referred to teachings related to sex. On podcasts and blogs, he discusses his mastery of “Sexual Alchemy” and “Sex Magick.”

A bearded man who often appears in photos and videos in a bowler hat and colored beads, Mr. Flores has mainly resided in recent years on the grounds of Xicoco Shamanic Arts, a registered charitable organization.

In addition to appearing in YouTube videos and on podcasts, Mr. Flores has in recent years offered workshops and retreats at Xicoco that can cost participants thousands of dollars. According to social media posts, the activities sometimes involve dances around a large tent.

Xicoco’s website says it “hosts Sweat Lodges, Vision Quests, and a Medicine Wheel.”

Mr. Flores has promoted esoteric ideas for decades. His talks and books draw on a number of different thinkers and spiritual traditions, including magicians and mystics like Aleister Crowley and Carlos Castaneda. He also often invokes Indigenous groups like the Toltecs, a civilization that lived centuries ago in what is now Mexico.

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