LOS ANGELES – Two defendants linked to a mortgage fraud scheme that cost at least $2.4 million when fraudulently purchased homes went into foreclosure have been sentenced to federal prison. The case involves a scheme to fraudulently obtain mortgages for residential properties through the use of “...

LOS ANGELES – A gang member with ties to the Mexican Mafia prison gang has been sentenced to more than 13 years in federal prison for distributing methamphetamine to street gangs in Bell Gardens. Guillermo Ruiz, known on the street as “Weasel,” 42, of Bell Gardens, was sentenced Monday to 160 mon...

LOS ANGELES – Attorney General Xavier Becerra today announced that California has joined a federal antitrust lawsuit with 39 other states charging six generic drug-makers with an illegal conspiracy to divide customers and markets and increase prices for two generic drugs. The complaint alleges th...

SANTA ANA, Calif. – A Washington felon was convicted yesterday of trafficking a woman and pimping her by using a firearm to force her to solicit commercial sex. Timogen Anthony Simpson, 27, Kent, Washington, was found guilty by a jury of two felony counts each of pimping and pandering; one felony...

Ten federal indictments unsealed today charge 55 defendants with crimes ranging from money laundering to heroin, methamphetamine and firearms trafficking in what officials have described as one of the most significant crackdowns in recent memory. The defendants, including prominent drug dealers a...

A former Lynwood city employee pleaded guilty today to embezzling more than $27,000 from an employees' union, the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office announced. Eric Gonzalez, 35, entered his plea to one count of felony grand theft. He was immediately sentenced to two days in county jai...

SANTA ANA, Calif. – A man is scheduled to be arraigned tomorrow for assault and insurance fraud after attacking a co-worker and falsely reporting being hit by a forklift. Randal Brown McKay, 65, Lake Forest, is charged with one felony count of assault with force likely to produce great bodily inj...

A 47-year-old man was sentenced yesterday to 15 years to life in state prison for killing his mother and placing her body in the trunk of her car, the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office announced. At Monday's court appearance, Clifton Huang of Hacienda Heights pleaded no contest to sec...

SANTA ANA, Calif. – The Court of Appeal, Fourth Appellate District, Division Three (DCA), granted the Orange County District Attorney's Office (OCDA) three writ petitions filed with the DCA to disqualify Judge Thomas Goethals and ordered the cases be assigned to a different judge. This is in resp...

SANTA ANA, California – A onetime school teacher who traveled to the Philippines to engage in sex with two girls and produced videos of the abuse was ordered today to serve 190 years in federal prison. Robert Ruben Ornelas, 66, of Santa Ana, who has a long history of abusing children, received th...

A 40-year-old man was sentenced today to 50 years to life in state prison for fatally shooting his girlfriend and dumping her body in Hacienda Heights six years ago, the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office announced. On Feb. 24, a jury found Francisco Nila Rojas guilty of first-degree m...

A 32-year-old man was convicted yesterday afternoon of fatally shooting his sister in 2015, the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office announced. The jury deliberated for a day before finding Johnny Goins of Pasadena guilty of four counts in case GA095841: one count of first-degree murder,...

SANTA ANA, Calif. – A nephew was convicted yesterday of shooting and murdering his uncle after an argument at a birthday party. Daniel Lee Duvall, 39, Westminster, was found guilty by a jury on Feb. 23, 2017, of one felony count of first degree murder, and a sentencing enhancement for personal di...

SANTA ANA, Calif. – A man was sentenced today to 11 years and four months in state prison today for pimping four women and smashing a car window when one of the victims attempted to escape. Clifford Tyrone Lawrence, 28, San Francisco, pleaded guilty on Feb. 21, 2017, to four felony counts of pimp...

SANTA ANA, Calif. – A man was sentenced today to 11 years and four months in state prison today for pimping four women and smashing a car window when one of the victims attempted to escape. Clifford Tyrone Lawrence, 28, San Francisco, pleaded guilty on Feb. 21, 2017, to four felony counts of pimp...

A 40-year-old man was convicted today of killing his girlfriend and dumping her body in Hacienda Heights six years ago, the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office announced. The jury deliberated for less than a day before finding Francisco Nila Rojas guilty of first-degree murder in case K...

SANTA ANA, Calif. – Two men were charged yesterday with kidnapping a man during a drug deal in Newport Beach and attempting to extort $130,000 from the victim's family. Steele Malone Burnside, 28, Anaheim, and Nicholas Andres Hernandez, 29, Murrieta, are each charged with one felony count of kidn...

LOS ANGELES – The 12th man convicted in an ATM skimming scheme has been sentenced to nearly four years in prison. Oliver Raducu Marian, 37, of Romania, was sentenced yesterday to 46 months in federal prison by United States District Otis D. Wright III. In addition to the prison term, Judge Wrig...

LOS ANGELES – A former baggage handler employed at Los Angeles International Airport was arrested Tuesday for smuggling cocaine by authorities investigating the use of employee credentials to breach airport security. Alberto H. Botello, 23, of South Gate, was arrested Tuesday evening without in...

Jacob Chait, 34, the head of acquisitions and auctioneer of a Beverley Hills, California gallery and auction house (“Auction House #1”), appeared yesterday in Manhattan federal court in New York to face charges of conspiring to smuggle rhinoceros horns, in violation of the Lacey Act. A one-count ...

LOS ANGELES – Attorney General Xavier Becerra today announced that Oswaldo Rafael Cabrera, the owner and operator of a Los Angeles-based business known as the Coalición Latinoamericana Internacional (CLI), was sentenced to five years and two months in state prison after pleading guilty to felony ...

SACRAMENTO – Attorney General Xavier Becerra filed a letter in the California Supreme Court today, urging it to grant review in People ex rel. Pierson v. Superior Court. In Pierson, the Third District Court of Appeal ruled unconstitutional a 2015 law that requires prosecutors to use public prelim...

A 70-year-old Long Beach woman was sentenced today for concealing her ex-husband's income to help him avoid paying state taxes, the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office announced. Linda Ann Knowlton was sentenced to formal probation for three years and ordered to pay $598,000 in restitut...

SANTA ANA, Calif. – A former Orange County Sheriff's Department (OCSD) deputy was convicted and sentenced to six months in Orange County jail and three years informal probation today on charges for committing insurance fraud by failing to disclose his true physical abilities and activities to his...

A former Los Angeles County sheriff's deputy pleaded no contest today to killing a man in Sylmar more than four years ago, the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office announced. Francisco Gamez II, 45, entered his plea to one count each of second-degree murder and attempted murder. He also ...