Automobile Thefts Los Angeles

A North Hollywood woman driving a stolen truck who fled from a motorcycle officer Wednesday after she was stopped for running a stop sign caused a three-car crash that critically injured a FEMA claims adjuster, authorities said. Anna Marie Hernandez, 27, who is known to police under half a dozen aliases, was booked on suspicion of felony driving under the influence, Los Angeles Police Detective Jim Mann said.

An aide to Assemblyman Tony Cardenas (D-Sylmar) was carjacked and kidnapped in San Fernando but escaped by jumping from her moving car, police said Wednesday. Yolanda Fuentes, 26, Cardenas' district director, had left the assemblyman's office in the 1200 block of San Fernando Road between 10 and 11 p.m. and was putting items in the car's passenger seat when a man grabbed her from behind and began choking her, said Det. Jeff Eley of the San Fernando Police Department.

Police Wednesday shot to death one of two carjackers who wounded a motorist and fled in his car on a high-speed chase through the streets of Pacoima before engaging officers in a gunfight, authorities said. The carjacking victim, whom witnesses identified as a man in his early 20s, was in good condition at Holy Cross Medical Center, a hospital spokeswoman said. Police and hospital officials would not reveal the victim's name. The violent episode began about 3:30 p.m.

An aide to Assemblyman Tony Cardenas was carjacked in San Fernando but escaped by jumping from her moving car, police said Wednesday. Yolanda Fuentes, 26, Cardenas' district director, had left the assemblyman's office in the 1200 block of San Fernando Road between 10 and 11 p.m. and was putting items in the passenger seat of her car when a man grabbed her from behind and began choking her, San Fernando Police Det. Jeff Eley said.

A charming scam artist claiming to be an assistant to rock guitarist Eddie Van Halen successfully used his chicanery in the San Fernando Valley this week, convincing a nurse to give him the keys to her convertible, police said Thursday. Then the man not only stole the car but disappointed 22 quadriplegics, whom he had promised the musician would visit and possibly play for. The thief, calling himself Steven Brokaw, briefly checked himself into St.

There was no quick and easy way to describe how Kimberley Horton died on July 25, 1992, at the hands of a gunman who only wanted her car. The word "carjacking" had yet to creep into the national lexicon, even though the crime was soaring across the country. Horton, a 21-year-old UCLA student who dreamed of studying international law, was one of the first local victims of this new, terrifying form of car theft, a crime that shattered the illusion that people were safe inside their cars.

A transient who murdered a car salesman during a test drive last year was sentenced Friday to 27 years to life in state prison. Yale Booska was convicted Aug. 6 of one count each of first-degree murder, robbery, larceny of a motor vehicle and driving a car without the owner's consent. Prosecutors said Booska, 32, shot and killed Charles Washington, a salesman for Barish Chrysler-Plymouth in Los Angeles, during a test drive of a new car on April 17, 1989.

The third suspect in a follow-home robbery-murder was sentenced to prison Monday, closing another chapter in the slaying of a well-to-do food company executive in Brentwood. Bennie Lee Kamack was sentenced to 15 years in prison after pleading no contest to charges of killing Craig Harrington, 42, during a botched daytime carjacking attempt in Harrington's garage. Kamack, 43, of Los Angeles, was the driver in the 1995 stabbing death that involved two other suspects.

Two teen-age college students from Japan who came to the United States to pursue their dreams of becoming filmmakers, only to be gunned down in a carjacking, died after being taken off life support systems Sunday, the day their parents arrived from Japan. Takuma Ito and Go Matsuura, both 19, died Sunday evening, said Harbor-UCLA Medical Center spokesman Randy Foster.

Actor Harry Dean Stanton, who built his career playing grizzled outsiders in films such as "Repo Man" and "Alien," was tied up and injured in a weekend home invasion robbery, Los Angeles police said Sunday. Two men were arrested late Saturday after a tracking device was activated in Stanton's car, which the thieves had taken and eventually crashed when chased by police. A shaken Stanton was at home Sunday in his Mulholland Drive house above Sherman Oaks, fielding calls from well-wishers.

Nearly 30,000 times last year, the call came in to the Los Angeles Police Department. Each one began more or less the same: "Somebody stole my car." In the typical case, the car was eventually found but no arrest was made. Of all the major crimes in Los Angeles, auto theft is the most difficult to solve or prevent, police say. Last year, the LAPD's North Hollywood Division recorded 2,145 reports of stolen autos, but made just 80 arrests.

Burglars who stole vehicles worth more than $60,000 from a Reseda used-car dealership over the weekend also spray-painted a swastika on the premises, prompting police on Sunday to call it a hate crime. Employees at Magic Auto Center, 6360 Reseda Blvd., found the business ransacked Sunday, said Sgt. R.J. Acosta of the Los Angeles Police Department's West Valley station. Three vehicles were stolen and five were damaged, Acosta said.

A Van Nuys Superior Court jury on Wednesday convicted a 34-year-old Los Angeles man of stabbing a Studio City man to death and stealing his Porsche, authorities said. Marcus Sartin was found guilty of first-degree murder in the August 1999 death of 41-year-old Mitchell Stanman, said Sandi Gibbons, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County district attorney's office. The jury also found Sartin guilty of special circumstances charges and convicted him of robbery, carjacking and burglary, she said.

After an hourlong chase across the San Fernando Valley that reached speeds of 70 mph, four people were taken into custody Tuesday on suspicion of evading police and driving a stolen vehicle. The pursuit began about 9 a.m. in the 500 block of Glenoaks Boulevard after a parking enforcement officer at the San Fernando Swap Meet discovered a Chevrolet Camaro that had been reported stolen more than a week ago, Los Angeles Police Sgt. Ken Belden said.

The driver of a hijacked auto whose attempt to escape police stopped President Clinton's motorcade earlier this week has been charged with felony evading police and carjacking, prosecutors said Thursday. The charges, which represent a potential third strike, were filed against Oliver Delano Burke, 40, who is being held on $1-million bail in County Jail. If convicted, Burke will face a mandatory 25-year-to-life prison term.

A man accused of carjacking two couples and sexually assaulting the women in a busy commercial area of Sherman Oaks faces the possibility of life in prison, his prosecutor said Tuesday. Joseph Navar Downey, 23, was found guilty on all 10 counts of rape, robbery and kidnapping for two attacks in the same block of Ventura Boulevard, Deputy Dist. Atty. Ed Abele said.

A violent city became even more violent during 1990, as murder and robbery in Los Angeles increased at double-digit rates, according to statistics released Monday by Police Chief Daryl F. Gates. The number of rapes, which actually had dropped in 1989, climbed again, slightly, in 1990. Aggravated assaults increased by about 3%. Perhaps the most optimistic news from the summary of crime reports between Jan. 1, 1990, and Dec.

Police have arrested a 17-year-old suspect in connection with two carjackings in Eagle Rock and are investigating his possible involvement in a third carjacking attempt that resulted in the murder of Heidi Vargas, who would have turned 23 Wednesday. The suspect, who was arrested Aug. 30, has confessed to the two carjackings but not to the murder.

Two police officers and a suspected car thief were injured in separate crashes early Sunday during a high-speed chase that began in San Fernando. The suspect, Alex Serrano, 22, of Sylmar, was hospitalized with serious but not life-threatening injuries, said Lt. Lee Allen of the Los Angeles Police Department's Foothill Division. Serrano was booked on suspicion of felony evading arrest with injuries, grand-theft auto and possession of narcotics.

Police on Monday identified a man who was shot to death outside a South Los Angeles hotel when he surprised four thieves trying to steal his car. The victim was identified as 30-year-old Antonio Alvarez of Los Angeles, a police spokesman said. He was killed about 10 a.m. Sunday at the EC Motel at 3501 S. Western Ave., the spokesman said. Alvarez had apparently left his room to get some clothes from his car and surprised the thieves, Los Angeles Police Department spokesman Charles Rodriguez said.