Crime Victims Aged

A teenage burglar who beat a retired aerospace engineer to death with a flashlight was sentenced Friday to 26 years to life in prison. Emi Tauanuu Jr., 16, pleaded guilty in July to the first-degree murder of Wilfred Ray Barnes, 81, of Garden Grove. Barnes was in bed the night of Nov. 2 but got up and stumbled into Tauanuu and his uncle Sivea Logoleo, who also pleaded guilty and will be sentenced next week. Deputy Dist. Atty.

Pasadena police want the public's help in finding a Santa Fe Springs man suspected of beating a 91-year-old woman in her home. George Abreu, 41, dragged the woman from room to room as he gathered valuables on June 19, Sgt. Tom Pederson said. The suspect is about 5 feet 4 inches, weighs about 140 pounds and has numerous tattoos on his arms, back and chest, Pederson said. Anyone with information is asked to call Sgt. Mike Villalobos at (626) 744-4583.

A North Hollywood man was sentenced Monday to 18 years in prison after pleading guilty to the rape and robbery of a 76-year-old woman last year. Carl Fullard, 27, entered his plea in Van Nuys Superior Court as jury selection was about to begin. As part of a settlement agreement, Fullard pleaded guilty to rape, robbery and burglary and was immediately sentenced. Had he gone to trial and been convicted, he faced a maximum sentence of 23 years in prison. Deputy Dist. Atty. Sera J.

After listening to a videotaped confession and witnesses' testimony, a judge ruled Thursday that a 16-year-old girl accused of the brutal murder of an elderly Rialto woman would stand trial. In the confession, Christy Phillips, who was 15 at the time of the slaying, said she went to Manuela "Nellie" Fyock's house to adopt a cat, but became angry when Fyock treated her as if she were a thief.

A convicted scam artist tricked a 67-year-old retiree out of $103 by promising to consolidate her utility bills into one payment, police alleged Tuesday. Lorenzo Beamon, 27, was arrested last week at a Mt. Washington apartment complex on suspicion of petty theft and could face an additional burglary charge, police said. Los Angeles Police Det. D.C.

Los Angeles police arrested a 17-year-old boy Thursday in the attack on an elderly woman who was stabbed 20 times with a butcher knife and handcuffed to a drain pipe in the kitchen of her Reseda home, apparently during a robbery. Edith Aline Rose, 74, was able to whisper the name of her assailant to officers before she underwent surgery for stab wounds to her hands, neck and torso, LAPD Detective Rick Swanston said.

The 84-year-old aunt of a prominent Van Nuys Municipal Court judge was beaten to death after returning from the store and surprising thieves who had broken into her home, authorities said Friday. The body of Grace Perrin was discovered by a neighbor Thursday at about 4:30 p.m. near the back door of her small, well-kept house in the 14400 block of Miranda Street in Van Nuys.

A jury deliberated less than a full day Thursday before finding a transient guilty of first-degree murder in the slaying of a 71-year-old Santa Ana woman in her apartment. Michael Dean Owens, 33, faces life in prison without possibility of parole when he is sentenced March 21 in Orange County Superior Court. The jury found that he killed Patricia Hamilton Powell during a burglary and an attempted rape. Jurors were unable to reach a verdict on whether the murder occurred during a rape.

Two Orange County men were arrested Friday after being charged in a telemarketing fraud case in Iowa, law enforcement officials said. Terry Jack Greenwood, 45, of San Clemente, and Michael Edward Yeager, 27, of Huntington Beach, allegedly operated a telemarketing operation in February 1997 called Western Publishing Co., which took in about $40,000 from 44 victims, the criminal complaint states.

Two Orange County men, each accused of operating a telemarketing scheme that targeted the elderly, pleaded guilty to fraud charges in federal court in Santa Ana, federal regulators said Friday. Wayne Lewis Guenther, 31, of Newport Beach admitted that he called people and pretended to be affiliated with the Nation's Missing Children Organization, said Assistant U.S. Atty. S. Robert Raskin Jr.

A public inquiry into a British family doctor suspected of being the world's worst serial killer heard on its opening day Wednesday that he had a history of drug abuse but had still been allowed to practice medicine. Caroline Swift, head of the inquiry's legal team, told the hearing that Harold Shipman, dubbed "Dr. Death," was convicted in 1975 of forging prescriptions to feed his reliance on the painkiller pethidine but that authorities had ignored it.

A lottery scam has defrauded at least 1,000 Californians, including an elderly San Bernardino woman who lost $165,000, authorities said Tuesday. Investigators with the county district attorney's office said victims get a letter saying they've won a Canadian lottery and need to send a $9.95 fee to claim the winnings. The confidence artists take the cash and send more solicitations for larger amounts, said Investigator Jerry Villanueva of the district attorney's elder abuse unit.

A Laguna Niguel man was convicted Thursday of bilking investors, most of them elderly Orange County residents, out of more than $10 million by selling them practically worthless oil and gas partnerships. After deliberating for two days, a U.S. District Court jury in Santa Ana found Lance Van Alstyne, 34, guilty of engaging in a Ponzi scheme from 1992 to 1994. Van Alstyne sold limited partnerships in operations that he claimed involved transportation of natural gas to utilities.

Los Angeles police issued a warning Tuesday about criminals who pose as Department of Water and Power workers to get inside homes to steal. Det. Don Perez of the Hollenbeck Division said there have been 15 reported cases in Los Angeles since October. But he added: "This is the kind of crime that often goes unreported because the victims are embarrassed that they have been taken or are reluctant because they are scared of retaliation."

A man who allegedly bilked a 90-year-old homeless woman out of $40,000 will be extradited to California to stand trial, the U.S. attorney's office said Tuesday. Miguel Angel Somoza, 54, was indicted by a federal grand jury in Santa Ana on 10 counts of wire fraud and was arrested Monday at his residence in Roseburg, Ore. Somoza allegedly told the woman that she owed money to the IRS and that he would help her fix the problem if she gave him money.

At least seven Anaheim senior citizens have been victimized by thieves who pose as city workers and distract homeowners while accomplices ransack their houses for money, wallets, jewelry and other valuables, police said Wednesday. No one has been injured in the incidents, which have also been reported in Los Angeles County and seem to target seniors in their 70s and 80s, police said.

A pair of Mission Viejo men have been held in contempt in federal court for failing to comply with an order to repay more than $10 million they collected from elderly investors in what investigators called a gas and oil field scam. U.S. District Judge Edward Rafeedie scheduled a March 4 hearing for brothers Jeffrey and Jerome Casperson, who had signed a civil consent order after having been accused of selling fraudulent investments in nonexistent gas and oil fields.

Investors in an alleged $9-million oil-and-gas leasing investment scam that targeted elderly people filed a fraud suit Wednesday in Orange County Superior Court in Santa Ana. The complaint against Denver-based First Trust Corp. and Sandstone Income Fund V and Liberty Energy Management Inc., both of Laguna Niguel, and five men who allegedly orchestrated the investment fraud was brought by two Orange County residents and the estate of a deceased investor.

Acting on a query from concerned neighbors, police found a retired aerospace engineer and his wife apparently beaten to death in their Mission Viejo home Thursday morning. The bodies of Ray and Pauline Mingus, ages 69 and 74, were found by Orange County sheriff's deputies about 11:30 a.m. Thursday after members of the nearby Mount of Olives Lutheran Church reported that they had not seen the couple for several days, Orange County Sheriff's Department spokesman Jim Amormino said.

Two armed men burst into a La Habra home Saturday, knocking an 88-year-old resident to the ground before ransacking the place as the man and his elderly wife looked on helplessly, police said. The robbers kicked the man in the head, then tied him up and sat him in a chair, La Habra Police Lt. Joe Milazzo said. The robbery occurred about 5:10 p.m. in the 1300 block of East Brookdale Avenue. Police said later that the intruders got away with $65.