Automobile Thefts Orange County

In what was one of Orange County's first carjacking cases, jurors on Monday convicted three men for their roles in the murder of an Anaheim college student whose body was found in the trunk of his car. Jurors convicted Shawn Burney, 20, of Tustin and Allen Dean Burnett, 20, of Anaheim of first-degree murder, kidnaping and robbery and additional allegations in the murder of 23-year-old Joseph Andrew Kondrath. Burney could face the death penalty.

Authorities warned the public Thursday about a scam targeting residents who advertise their cars for sale in weekly publications such as Auto Trader and Autos Recycler. Dist. Atty. Tony Rackauckas said professional thieves have committed the crimes in Orange and Los Angeles counties on and off for about two years. The suspects respond to an auto ad, asking to inspect and test drive the car. During the meeting, the suspects make an imprint of the car key in clay when the seller isn't watching.

Three brothers were arrested Sunday in connection with the hijacking of a car from the parking lot of a Hyatt hotel. Taken to Orange County Jail and booked on suspicion of carjacking and assault were Barney Garibaldi Torres, 25; Lawrence Barney Torres, 32; and Adonis Barney Torres, 30, all of El Monte. According to Sgt.

Car thefts have jumped 23% in Orange County this year, the largest rise in more than a decade, fueling concern that other property crimes soon could follow the upward trend. Professional thieves and joy riders stole nearly 900 more vehicles during the first five months of 2001 than in the same period last year, everything from luxury SUVs to well-worn RVs.

A 21-year-old man went on a crime spree Wednesday in which he carjacked a truck, shot to death a Yorba Linda man and then stole another vehicle to flee the scene, police said. Ruben Sonny Martinez, of Norwalk, is wanted by police as a suspect in the robberies and homicide, said Brea Police Sgt. Tom Flenniken. He has also been linked to a hit-and-run accident before the killing in which a parked car was damaged, Flenniken said. About 6:30 p.m.

Troy Visintainer scanned the parking lot and got a sick feeling. His 1987 red Toyota pickup truck, the one he locked up and parked near the front door of an auto parts shop, was gone. Stolen. "It was right in front of my work. . . . I heard nothing," recalled the 23-year-old assistant manager at Trak Auto in Costa Mesa. "There was no broken glass, no tire squeal. . . . If it's not found now," he lamented a few days after the theft, "I figure it's gone or stripped." Police agree.

Six teen-agers were seriously injured Tuesday when their car, reportedly going more than 100 m.p.h., swerved across the San Diego Freeway, hit a call box and flew off an embankment, landing 75 feet below, authorities said. The driver did not have a license and was possibly intoxicated, California Highway Patrol Officer Lyle Whitten said. The car he was reportedly driving was listed as stolen from Long Beach.

A 16-year-old Huntington Beach girl out for the night with friends was stabbed to death and abandoned on a quiet residential street corner early Tuesday by one or more assailants who apparently drove off in her parents' car, police said. Mary Irene Lewis, 16, who had just finished her sophomore year at Huntington Beach High School, was found lying face up in a pool of blood in a crosswalk at Acacia Avenue and Brookhurst Way about 1 a.m.

Two men have been arrested in connection with an attempted car theft during which one suspect allegedly shot at a sheriff's deputy and escaped in a patrol car, officials said Friday. Brian Thomas Greco, 27, of Arcadia was arrested 11:30 a.m. Friday by sheriff's deputies in Newport Beach and Aren Marcus Jackson, 23, of Laguna Niguel was taken into custody by Costa Mesa police Thursday after allegedly stealing a Porsche, said Lt. Dick Olson of the Orange County Sheriff's Department. About 11:30 p.

An Orange County Superior Court jury deadlocked Tuesday in a case against an Anaheim man charged with murder in one of the county's first fatal carjackings, the second time a jury has been unable to reach a verdict. Scott Rembert, 22, was convicted of kidnaping last spring in connection with the June, 1992, slaying of Joseph Andrew Kondrath, but two separate juries have been unable to decide on a count of murder and special circumstances that mandate a life sentence without parole. Deputy Dist.

A man who burglarized a house and then pulled off a carjacking at a nearby video store was killed Sunday when he lost control of the stolen car and slammed into a palm tree in Buena Park, police said. Gordon Harris, 36, of Westminster was pronounced dead after being rushed to the hospital, Buena Park Police Sgt. Chris Nunez said. Harris allegedly broke into a house about 11:12 p.m. in the 4000 block of Estepona Way, where he got into a scuffle with the homeowners.

A couple in a silver Cadillac DeVille that may have been stolen led authorities on an hourlong chase on Orange County streets and freeways Tuesday, injuring one officer, before finally stopping outside the Anaheim police station, authorities said. Police arrested Tyler Oliff, 39, and his wife, Tammy, 34, both of Anaheim.

Tustin police continued searching Wednesday for one or more suspects who stole a car with three infant boys in the back seat. The car, which had been left unlocked with the engine running, was stolen while the triplets' father ran an errand at a Shell gas station on Jamboree Road about 8 p.m. Tuesday, Tustin Police Lt. Bill Fischer said. About 25 minutes later at a nearby Costco store, an employee found the babies in the bed of a parked truck.

A car with three infants strapped in seats was stolen from a Tustin gas station Tuesday night, but the children were returned safely after being dropped off at a department store, police said. The father, whom police did not identify, had left the triplets unattended in a running car about 8:05 p.m. while he went into a Shell station on Jamboree Road, said Sgt. Tom Tarpley of the Tustin Police Department.

Two people driving a stolen U-Haul truck in Costa Mesa were booked on attempted murder after they allegedly tried to run over a Sheriff's Department sergeant early Thursday morning, prompting other deputies to fire at them. No one was injured in the incident that began when several undercover police cars began following the truck, said Orange County Sheriff's Department spokesman Steve Doan.

Anaheim police detectives Friday night were investigating a man's report that he was carjacked at Disneyland earlier in the day, driven about 40 miles to the Jefferson Park area of Los Angeles and then dropped off. The unidentified man told Los Angeles police that the thief or thieves took off in his 1987 green Jeep Cherokee, said Los Angeles Police Officer Don Cox. Police immediately began hunting for the vehicle, he said. Cox said police received a call at 9:38 p.m.

An Orange County jury on Wednesday recommended the death penalty for a 20-year-old Tustin man who carjacked an Anaheim college student, robbed him of $1 and then executed the student as he lay crouched in the trunk of his Jetta. Some jurors sobbed as the verdict was announced against Shawn Kareem Burney, who last week was convicted along with two friends in connection with the murder of 23-year-old Joseph Andrew Kondrath in one of Orange County's first carjacking cases.

A person suspected of throwing oranges at motorists managed to elude police Monday night by driving a stolen pickup truck on the wrong side of the San Diego Freeway, then over an embankment, police said Tuesday. Before going over the embankment, the truck collided with a northbound car occupied by an Irvine couple, who suffered minor injuries, said police Lt. Al Muir. The truck was later found abandoned. "It was definitely a bizarre incident," Muir said.

The Orange County district attorney's office has charged a Santa Ana man who allegedly led police on a brief car chase last week with grand theft, fleeing from officers and causing a hit-and-run accident. Juan Segovia, 36, allegedly stole a truck that was towing a tractor mower from a Santa Ana Unified School District lot Wednesday afternoon, authorities said.

Chheng Kuy and her family thought they had found a safe haven here after fleeing Cambodia's killing fields and Pol Pot's bloody regime nearly 20 years ago. But three masked gunmen proved them wrong early Wednesday morning. As Kuy left home about 5:30 a.m. for her job at a local optical factory, she was grabbed by the three assailants, pistol-whipped and then pushed back into the house. The commotion woke her six children. "I was screaming 'Call the police!'