Willie Eddie Salazar of Wildomar caused the death of 32-year-old Sahtarria Anderson of Menifee in 2022.

In February, a Murrieta jury convicted Salazar of second-degree murder, felony driving under the influence and DUI resulting in great bodily injury.

During a hearing at the Southwest Justice Center in Murrieta Friday, Riverside County Superior Court Judge Johnnetta Anderson imposed the sentence required under state law on the defendant.

According to the California Highway Patrol, on the night of April 29, 2022, the defendant was driving his Honda Civic the wrong way — going westbound in the eastbound lanes of Domenigoni Parkway — when he approached a Chevrolet Malibu driven by Anderson’s friend, identified only as a 31-year-old Hemet man.

Anderson was in the right front passenger seat of the four-door sedan, which was near Patterson Avenue when the two vehicles reached the same point.

“The Honda and Chevrolet were involved in a head-on crash,” CHP Officer Jason Montez said at the time, adding that it was uncertain exactly how fast each car was traveling.

Paramedics arrived minutes later and treated the defendant and two victims, all of whom were taken to Inland Valley Medical Center in Wildomar.

Anderson succumbed to her injuries the following day. Her friend, who suffered major injuries, was hospitalized for an unspecified period but ultimately recovered.

Salazar, also seriously hurt, was hospitalized for more than a week before being booked into jail.

Court records indicated that, in February 2022, he admitted a misdemeanor DUI, receiving a month-long jail sentence and a 36-month term of probation, with a requirement that he attend classes on the dangers of drinking and driving.

It was unclear whether he enrolled in the program. Under California law, if a DUI offender is convicted of driving while intoxicated, he or she can be charged with murder for causing a death directly tied to a subsequent DUI collision.

Court documents showed Salazar additionally had a misdemeanor conviction for domestic violence.

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Nicole Daedone, co-founder of OneTaste Inc., was also ordered to forfeit $12 million during the hearing in Brooklyn. That was the amount she sold the California-based company for, according to John Marzulli, spokesperson for the Office of U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York.

Prosecutors had sought a 20-year prison term for Daedone, arguing in presentencing court filings that her scheme left “scores of victims financially, emotionally and psychologically scarred.”

“Daedone and her co-conspirators exercised control through economic pressure, psychological manipulation, physical exhaustion and emotional degradation, leaving behind a trail of financial ruin and lasting trauma,” prosecutors wrote.

Her lawyers argued that imposing a lengthy imprisonment would be “bonkers” as they sought a term of around two years for Daedone.

They noted that the New York resident had no prior criminal record and that more than 200 people had submitted letters to the court “attesting to her character, her generosity, and her positive influence.”

“She has lived an uncommon and impactful life, and she is deeply respected by people from all walks of life, including many entirely unconnected to OneTaste,” the defense lawyers wrote in their sentencing memo. “She is a prolific writer, teacher, and spiritual practitioner whose work has long focused on reducing suffering and fostering meaningful human connection.”

Among those who penned letters of support was Van Jones, a CNN correspondent and former adviser to President Barack Obama.

The longtime criminal justice reform advocate described Daedone as “a woman of uncommon wisdom, grace and moral courage” who has “dedicated her life to helping others find healing, empowerment and a deeper sense of human connection.”

Actor Richard Schiff, of the television series “The West Wing,” wrote that Daedone was deserving of the court’s leniency because she has “spent her life trying to bring compassion, awareness, and honesty to a part of human experience that is often shamed or misunderstood.”

Daedone’s lawyers didn’t immediately respond to an email seeking comment after the sentencing. Rachel Cherwitz, the company’s former sales director, was set to be sentenced later Monday.

During the roughly one-month trial, prosecutors said the two women ran a yearslong scheme that groomed adherents — many of them victims of sexual trauma — to do their bidding.

They said Daedone and Cherwitz, of California, used economic, sexual and psychological abuse, intimidation and indoctrination to force OneTaste members into sexual acts they found uncomfortable or repulsive, such as having sex with prospective investors or clients.

The two told followers the questionable acts were necessary in order to obtain “freedom” and “enlightenment,” and to demonstrate their commitment to the company’s principles.

One of Daedone’s lawyers, meanwhile, cast her as a “ceiling-shattering feminist entrepreneur” who created a unique business centered on women’s sexuality and empowerment.

Daedone co-founded OneTaste in San Francisco in 2004 as a sort of self-help commune that viewed female orgasms as key to sexual and psychological wellness and interpersonal connection.

A centerpiece was “orgasmic meditation,” or “OM,” which was carried out by men manually stimulating women in a group setting.

The company enjoyed glowing media coverage in the 2010s as a cutting-edge enterprise that prioritized women’s sexual pleasure, and quickly opened outposts from Los Angeles to London.

Daedone sold her stake in the company in 2017 for $12 million — a year before OneTaste’s marketing and labor practices came under scrutiny.

The company’s current owners have since rebranded it as the Institute of OM Foundation. They maintain its work has been misconstrued and that the charges against its former executives were unjustified.

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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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Mitchell Akira Takata, 23, of Los Altos, had pleaded guilty to the crimes in October, according to the Riverside County District Attorney’s Office.

In May 2024, Riverside police began investigating reports of sexual abuse involving a child who authorities described as “severely handicapped and non-verbal.”

The reporting party told police that during a therapy session, the girl had been sexually abused by Takata, who was her behavioral therapist. 

Officers arrived at the girl’s home where, following an investigation, Takata was taken into custody. He was held at the Robert Presley Detention Center on $1 million bail.

Takata had been working as a behavioral therapist for around three years at the time of his arrest and he primarily worked with disabled children, prosecutors said.

In June 2024, he was charged with the crimes and in October 2025, he pleaded guilty to one count of an attempt to commit rape and one count of lewd and lascivious acts of a child under 14 years of age.

On Dec. 15, he was sentenced to 17 years in prison. At the time, investigators were also searching for more possible victims.

Anyone with additional information on the case can call Detective Daniel Suarez at 951-353-7120 or email dsuarez@riversideca.gov.

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Jamie Lee Komoroski pleaded guilty at the Charleston County courthouse to reckless homicide, felony DUI causing death and two counts of felony DUI causing great bodily injury before her sentencing.

Also hurt in the 2023 crash was the groom, Aric Hutchinson, who cried in court as he recalled the last moments he spent with Samantha Miller — some of their only moments as husband and wife.

“On the golf cart, she told me she didn’t want the night to end and I kissed her on the forehead and then the next thing I remember is waking up in the hospital,” Hutchinson said.

Komoroski, 27, was sentenced to the maximum of 25 years in prison for felony DUI causing death by Judge Deadra Jefferson. She also was sentenced to 15 years in prison for each count of felony DUI causing great bodily injury and 10 years for reckless homicide. The sentences will all run at the same time.

Police said Komoroski drank at several bars on April 28, 2023, and was driving 65 mph (105 kph) on a narrow Folly Beach road with a speed limit of 25 mph (40 kph) when she slammed into the golf cart leaving a wedding. Her blood-alcohol level was 0.26%, which is more than three times the legal limit to drive.

The 34-year-old bride died still wearing her wedding dress. The groom suffered a brain injury and numerous broken bones. The cart was thrown 100 yards (91 meters) by the crash.

After pleading guilty, Komoroski said she realized now she was addicted to alcohol and selfishly didn’t care how her actions affected others. She promised to spend the rest of her life helping addicts and warning of the dangers of drinking and driving. She said she was “devastated, deeply ashamed and sorry” for what she did.

“I wish I could go back and undo this terrible tragedy. But I cannot. I will live the rest of my life with intense regret for what happened that night,” she said.

She said all her work will be dedicated to Miller’s memory.

“I pray God stands by the side of my victims and their families and loved ones for the rest of their lives,” Komoroski said.

A number of friends and family of both Miller and Komoroski spoke at the hearing, which lasted nearly three hours. Komoroski’s supporters asked the judge to be lenient because she is young, remorseful and can still do good.

Many of Miller’s family asked for a harsh sentence, saying they can never get her back and that the decisions Komoroski made that night were selfish and permanently scarred many lives. Komoroski looked at most of Miller’s family, including Hutchinson, as they spoke, occasionally wiping away tears.

Hutchinson said he sees more doctors and therapists than he can count because of his physical injuries and the mental anguish of the crash, and that he thinks about it every single day.

“I wish I had died that night. I wish I had seen it coming. I’d have jumped off the golf cart so you would only have run me over,” Hutchinson said.

Hutchinson won $863,000 in legal settlements from three bars that served Komoroski as well as her insurance firm and the company she rented her car from.

Before the sentencing, Miller’s father told Komoroski he was disgusted that she appeared to never take responsibility. He told her she could apologize, but he wouldn’t listen to a word.

“The rest of my life I’m going to hate you and when I arrive in hell and you come there, I will open the door for you,” Brad Warner said. “You have ruined so many people’s lives.”

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A Riverside jury deliberated less than two days before finding Eduardo Avalos Escoto guilty of the 2019 slaying of 42-year-old Brandie Frazier.

The jury went behind closed doors Thursday afternoon to weigh evidence from the two-week trial. Riverside County Superior Court Judge Valerie Navarro gave the panel Friday off going into the holiday weekend, and jurors returned to the Riverside Hall of Justice on Tuesday, deliberating most of the day before announcing verdicts.

Along with the murder count, Escoto was convicted of sentence- enhancing allegations of inflicting great bodily injury, using sophistication in perpetrating a crime and taking advantage of a position of trust.

The judge scheduled a sentencing hearing for Dec. 10. Escoto, who is being held without bail at the Byrd Detention Center in Murrieta, is facing 30 years to life in state prison.

According to a trial brief filed by the District Attorney’s Office, the defendant and Frazier met while he was working as a handyman around her and her mother’s property in the 17000 block of Palm Road, near California Citrus State Historic Park, in 2018.

Escoto and the victim began dating, culminating in his moving in with her and living in one of two residential dwellings on the property, occupied by Frazier and her two young children, while her mother, identified only as “L.B.,” resided in the adjacent house, the brief said.

The defendant, a Mexican national, exhibited a “clear pattern of violence against women” with whom he became romantically involved, but that was unknown to the victim and her mother, according to the brief. The narrative said that in a prior relationship with a woman in Mexico, he had beaten her and threatened her life.

Exactly what happened between Escoto and Frazier on the night of Aug. 31, 2019, is uncertain, but according to court papers, the defendant turned “extremely violent.”

The prosecution described the attack as a “gruesome murder,” noting that not only was Frazier “beaten violently,” but her “neck was broken, and the defendant went so far as to bite her face,” according to the brief.

“The manner in which the murder was committed was not only violent, but extremely intimate and personal,” the document stated.

On the morning of Sept. 1, 2019, L.B. became concerned when she didn’t see her daughter and walked over to the victim’s house.

“She found her grandchildren crying and went looking for her daughter … whom she found brutally beaten and showing no signs of life in her bed,” according to the brief.

Escoto had fled and immediately became the prime suspect. Court papers said he stole Frazier’s “jewelry and other valuables,” which he quickly hocked at a pawn shop.

The Pacific Southwest Regional Fugitive Task Force, whose members include D.A.’s office investigators, discovered Escoto went to Mexico. Mexican law enforcement agencies were asked to assist in finding him. However, in June 2022, authorities learned he had returned to the U.S. and was in Washington state before heading to Texas, where he was arrested in July 2022 by Mitchell County sheriff’s deputies at a gas station in Colorado City.

He was extradited to California weeks later.

Escoto had no documented prior felony convictions in Riverside County.

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“These siblings are extremely relieved the defendants can never do to another child what happened to them,” attorney Elan Zektser said during a briefing outside the Riverside Historic Courthouse Monday. “But now they’re asking, what’s next? Each of them truly wants to see change.”

Zektser represents two of the girls from the Turpin family, while fellow attorney Roger Booth represents four other children — all of whom were placed with Marcelino Camacho Olguin, 65, his wife, Rosa Armida Olguin, 60, and their adult daughter, Lennys Giovanna Olguin, 39, after the victims were rescued from an oft-described “house of horrors” maintained by their parents in 2018.

The Olguins reached plea deals with the D.A.’s office, and on Friday, they were sentenced.

Marcelino Olguin admitted seven counts of lewd acts on a minor and one count of false imprisonment. He received seven years in state prison and was ordered to register as a sex offender for life. His wife admitted three counts of child abuse and one count each of witness intimidation, grand theft and false imprisonment. She received four years’ felony probation. The couple’s daughter admitted three counts of child abuse and one count each of false imprisonment and witness intimidation. She received four years’ probation.

Coordinating with placement agency ChildNet, county Child Protective Services placed the six victims with the Olguins despite complaints of prior abuse in their home, according to the plaintiffs. When CPS agents were alerted to the endangerment of the Turpin children, they failed to act, according to Zektser and Booth.

“The county and ChildNet told them, `Trust us; we got you,”‘ Zektser said. “Then they placed them with child abusers and molesters. I was the head of the sexual assault unit at the (Riverside County) District Attorney’s Office, and I can tell you, prosecutors there are sick and tired of dealing with these cases from CPS.”

The county Executive Office released a statement to City News Service Monday calling the Turpin siblings’ experiences “heartbreaking.”

“We remain committed to their wellbeing and their lifelong journey of healing,” the EO stated. “We appreciate our county and community partners, who collaborate with us to support this family, and every family, with services and resources.”

Zektser said instead of removing the victims from the house to take statements from them in late 2020 and early 2021, the minors were interviewed by agents in front of the defendants, causing them to clam up. It was only when the sheriff’s detective who had investigated the victims’ parents, Tom Salisbury, learned of the abuse allegations against the Olguins that the siblings were interviewed by “professionals,” culminating in a criminal investigation and charges, the attorneys said.

“Salisbury insisted they be removed from that home (in 2021),” Booth said.

Zektser characterized the abuse inflicted by the Olguins as “far greater” than what the victims experienced from their parents.

“They were treated worse than animals,” he said. “The Olguins made them sit in circles, and they would tell them, `No one cares about you. You are nothing.”‘

The attorneys’ consolidated civil complaint recited the following additional acts: “making the plaintiffs sit by themselves, sometimes outside, for many hours at a time”; “making plaintiffs recount, in detail, the horrors that they had experienced while living with their parents”; “verbally abusing plaintiffs, cursing at them, and telling them that they were worthless and should commit suicide”; “forcing them to eat until they began to vomit,” then compelling them “to eat their own vomit.”

Marcelino Olguin also repeatedly groped and kissed two of the girls. Money that was intended for the plaintiffs was sometimes pocketed by the defendants, the attorneys said.

Zektser said while his and Booth’s clients are “content with what happened” in the Olguins’ case, “they are continuously asking what the county is going to do.”

The attorneys said they hoped reforms to the foster care system proposed by former federal Judge Stephen Larson and the county Grand Jury in 2022 would net results.

“Things happen that you don’t know about,” Booth said. “Much of what happens in the system is shrouded in secrecy. There are lots of children being subjected to abuse, and no one knows about it.”

Zektser said if his clients, whose parental mistreatment gained international attention, can end up in conditions like those they encountered in the Olguin home, there’s “a bigger issue” that warrants resolution for the good of all minors in foster care.

“Money changes things,” the attorney said. “We are seeking a confidential amount. These now-young adults, our clients, need help. This (lawsuit) will also hopefully change how these agencies do business.”

A settlement conference is set for January. If there’s no pretrial agreement, the attorneys said they’ll be ready for trial.

County spokeswoman Brooke Federico said ChildNet is no longer utilized by the Department of Public Social Services.

“DPSS continues to address existing placement gaps and expand safe, available placements,” she said. “The county is dedicated to continuous quality improvement, and we are constantly reviewing our practices, procedures and policies. We have implemented many of the Larson report’s recommendations and are in the process of implementing several more.”

Only one of the 13 Turpin children, a girl who’s now 8 years old, remains in foster care. The others are in college, trying to procure employment and find paths forward, Zektser and Booth said.

District Attorney Mike Hestrin and the Larson report acknowledged the Turpin siblings had received some funds from hundreds of thousands of dollars in charitable donations made after they were liberated from their parents’ Muir Woods Road residence. How much of that money remains available has not been divulged.

The victims’ parents, David Turpin, 61, and Louise Turpin, 54, were each sentenced to 25 years to life in state prison in 2019 after admitting child cruelty charges.

They kept some of their children restrained most times of the day, forced them to subsist on peanut butter sandwiches and burritos, made them sleep up to 20 hours daily, and allowed them to shower only once a year. There was also physical abuse that resulted in injuries.

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RIVERSIDE, CA — An unlicensed driver who backed into a California Highway Patrol motorcycle officer during a traffic stop, injuring the lawman, pleaded guilty Monday to assault on a peace officer with a deadly weapon and other charges.

Prudencio Xajil Alvarado, 57, admitted the assault count, along with DUI resulting in great bodily injury and being an unlicensed operator of a motor vehicle, as part of a plea directly to Riverside County Superior Court Judge Thomas Kelly, without input or objection from the District Attorney’s Office.

Kelly did not specify a potential term of imprisonment. He scheduled Alvarado’s sentencing for July 10 at the Riverside Hall of Justice.

The defendant remains free on $35,000 bail.

According to CHP Officer Javier Navarro, about 9:30 a.m. Oct. 18, 2022, the victim, identified only as a motor officer from the agency’s Riverside office, spotted the defendant’s Nissan Maxima on Indiana Avenue, just south of the Riverside (91) Freeway, and observed an unspecified infraction, prompting the lawman to conduct an enforcement stop.

Alvarado complied, pulling over to the curb, and the motor unit stopped a short distance behind him, Navarro said.

“As the officer began to dismount his motorcycle to contact the driver, Alvarado placed the Nissan into reverse and accelerated toward the officer,” the CHP spokesman said. “The Nissan collided into the motorcycle, disabling it and subsequently causing minor injuries to the officer.”

The lawman immediately arrested the defendant without further incident.

“Alvarado displayed objective signs and symptoms of alcohol intoxication,” Navarro said.

The officer was treated for his injuries but not hospitalized. The defendant was not hurt.

Alvarado has no documented prior felony or misdemeanor convictions in Riverside County.

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