Two plead not guilty to murder, assault charges stemming from deadly crash
Reputed gang members
PASADENA, Calif.—Two reputed gang members pleaded not guilty today to murder charges stemming from a crash that occurred at the end of a Christmas day police chase in Pasadena, killing a Glendale woman and her 11-year-old cousin.
Darrell Lee Williams, 22, of Pasadena, and Brittany Michelle Washington, 21, of Los Angeles, are each charged with two counts of murder stemming from the deaths of Tracey Ong Tan, 25, and Kendrick Ng of Daly City.
The defendants are also charged with three counts each of assault with a deadly weapon—an automobile—and Williams is additionally facing one count of being a felon in possession of a firearm.
Williams allegedly was behind the wheel of a silver Dodge Durango that rolled through a stop sign near Claremont Street and Marengo Avenue.
Police chased the vehicle for about 30 seconds before the SUV smashed into a van turning onto a Foothill (210) Freeway ramp from Marengo Avenue. Tan and Ng were killed on impact, and three other people inside the van were injured.
Williams and Washington are due back in Pasadena Superior Court Feb. 1, when a date is scheduled to be set for a hearing at which a judge will rule if there is sufficient evidence for them to stand trial.
LOS ANGELES, Calif.—Two Los Angeles police officers were treated today for injuries they suffered when they crashed into a shelter for women and children in South Los Angeles while pursuing a reckless driver, making the building unsafe and prompting the evacuation of 32 people, authorities said.
The pursuit started at Florence Avenue and San Pedro Street around 9:10 p.m. Sunday and went southbound, said Sgt. Lawrence Martinez of the Los Angeles Police Department’s Newton Station.
LOS ANGELES, Calif.—Two reputed gang members pleaded not guilty today to a murder charge stemming from the Christmas Day shooting death of a civilian sheriff’s employee in Pasadena.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Shelly Torrealba denied bail for Larry Darnell Bishop Jr., 20, and Jerron Donald Harris, 25, both of whom are jailed in Victor McClinton’s slaying.
INGLEWOOD, Calif.—A boy in a stolen car led officers through Inglewood and other South Bay cities today in a meandering two-hour pursuit during which he crashed into a police cruiser, then drove over some spike strips and was arrested, police said.
The pursuit started at Manchester and La Cienega Boulevards in Inglewood at 11:06 p.m., when officers attempted to stop a gold Toyota Camry stolen in Inglewood and the driver refused to pull over, said Inglewood police Sgt. Brian Hand.
TORRANCE, Calif.—The getaway driver in a deadly 2009 shooting in unincorporated Lennox was sentenced today to 50 years to life in state prison.
Helen Spry, 25—along with her co-defendants, gang members DeAndre Riser and Olton Drake—were convicted of one count of first-degree murder and eight counts of attempted murder for the April 29, 2009, shooting in the 10800 block of Inglewood Avenue that killed Amador Cendejas-Cortes, 59, and wounded five other people.
LOS ANGELES, Calif.—A parolee was in fair condition today with a head wound he suffered when he was shot in the head on the Harbor (110) Freeway in South Los Angeles while being pursued by gang rivals, police said.
The incident began around 8:30 p.m. Sunday, when a gang member recently paroled to a rival gang’s area set out to see his girlfriend, said Sgt. James Winter of the Los Angeles Police Department’s Southeast Station.
“It started on surface streets,” Winter said.
