Assaults Orange County

A judge on Friday sentenced a 15-year-old reputed Santa Ana gang member to the California Youth Authority for his role in the murders of a teen-age rival and a 4-year-old child in Orange County's worst incident of gang violence. Anthony Ibarra, who was 14 at the time of the shooting, is one of four convicted in the Sept. 16, 1989, killings.

Two reputed Santa Ana gang members, convicted of murdering a teen-age rival and a 4-year-old bystander in the worst gang violence in county history, were ordered Friday to spend the rest of their lives in prison for a crime the judge called "inexcusable." Tensions ran high in the tightly guarded courtroom of Superior Court Judge Tulley H.

At 16, "Tomboy" is wanted for burglary. She has dyed amber hair, a knife-cut tattoo on her forearm that says "I love Tuan" and a way of hunching her shoulders that tells adults to drop dead. She sits in silent fury under arrest in a lawn chair outside a motel room packed with 16 Vietnamese-American teens. Inside, a police search is turning up a switch-blade, a holster for an automatic, high-caliber bullets, a stun-gun, and what police think is stolen property.

An after-school brawl that led to the stabbing of a Westminster High School student Tuesday was probably the result of ethnic tensions, officials said Wednesday. Westminster Principal Bonnie Maspero acknowledged that the afternoon fight in a church parking lot a block from the school was likely sparked by friction between Asians and Latinos, who make up about equal portions of the 2,400-student population.

A part-time playground counselor at a Costa Mesa elementary school has been arrested on suspicion of assaulting a man who was attending a party at his home, police said Saturday. Police said they found Michael Joseph Caristi, 23, of Orange lying unconscious in the street when they responded to a loud-party complaint about 10 p.m. Friday in the 1200 block of Londonderry Street. Caristi had a severe head injury, officers said.

Two Anaheim women were in custody Friday as suspects in a stabbing attack on a third woman at an Irvine adult education center, police said. The victim, Lisa M. Luppi, 37, of Santa Ana, was in critical but stable condition at Western Medical Center-Santa Ana. Nadine Celeste Anastasia and Marianne Laprairie Lucas, both 45, were being held Friday at the Orange County Jail in lieu of $250,000 bail each, Irvine Police Sgt. Tom Little said.

Hayley Mills was a good one. Bette Davis was a good one and a bad one. They were movie twins, part of a rich tradition of stories dating back to Genesis about that most intriguing human relationship: the identical sibling. An Irvine case involving allegations of one twin trying to knock off the other and assume her identity--and good credit--reminds us how fascinating the bond is between twins.

Sunny Han remained in intensive care Wednesday, recovering from an overdose of sleeping pills, as the trial of her twin sister, Jeen Han, continued in Orange County Superior Court. If her medical condition allows, the prosecution hopes the 23-year-old can continue her testimony today in the trial of her sister and two teenagers accused of planning her murder. "She is still stable in ICU and they don't have an estimated time of release," Irvine Police Det. Victor Ray reported to Judge Eileen C.

A Santa Ana man plowed his Cadillac into a Costa Mesa playground filled with preschoolers Monday evening, killing two children and injuring at least five other people in what police believe was an act of revenge against the school. The car smashed through the play area of the Southcoast Early Childhood Learning Center shortly after 5 p.m., turning a yard filled with more than 40 laughing children into a field of shrieking boys and girls.

Four teen-agers, including three juveniles, were arrested late Tuesday night in connection with the stabbing of a 19-year-old who was dumped along the Santa Ana River this week, police said Wednesday. "When you consider the young age of the people involved, this is a very unusual occurrence for this community," Police Lt. John FitzPatrick said. Ruben Sanchez, 19, remains in critical condition at an undisclosed hospital where he was taken Sunday night with multiple stab wounds.