Deadly Weapon

Two 21-year-old men are charged with 85 felonies for allegedly shooting pellet guns at more than 40 cars along a Bay Area freeway. Shawn Philip Wagner of Mariposa and Rojelio Samuel Gomez of Fremont were each charged with 42 counts of assault with a deadly weapon and 43 counts of vandalism in connection with the shootings over the last several months. Both defendants are expected to make their first appearance at the Fremont Hall of Justice on Tuesday.

Animal cruelty charges have been filed against a Riverside County man who is accused of fatally beating a horse with a sledgehammer and beheading it with a chain saw. Jack Ziniuk was charged Wednesday in Superior Court with two counts. The district attorney's office says one count is based on physical injury to the horse and includes the use of a deadly weapon, the sledgehammer. The second count is based on neglect of the horse. Prosecutors say more charges may be filed based on the decapitation.

Los Angeles County prosecutors have filed murder charges against a wheelchair-using woman accused of fatally stabbing a teenage girl earlier this week. Treana Turner, 30, was charged Friday with one count of murder with the allegation that she personally used a deadly weapon, a knife. Her mother and codefendant, Pamela Johnson, 54, faces one count of assault with a deadly weapon. It wasn't known if they had retained attorneys. Turner is accused of killing the 16-year-old on Wednesday.

A 49-year-old transient who allegedly stabbed a 14-year-old girl pleaded not guilty Tuesday to felony assault charges. David Edward Eddy, 49, is charged with a single felony count of assault with a deadly weapon, one felony count of possession of a deadly weapon and a sentencing enhancement for great bodily injury, prosecutors said. Eddy also faces a three-strikes sentencing enhancement that could land him in prison for 28 years to life. He was convicted in a 1992 burglary in San Francisco and of aggravated assault in 1984 in Los Angeles County.

Los Angeles police Tuesday shot and killed a man who was brandishing a shotgun in Encino, authorities said. The incident occurred in the 5800 block of Balcom Avenue in a neighborhood just north of the 101 Freeway and west of White Oak Avenue. Officer Marjan Mobasser of the Los Angeles Police Department said police responded to a call reporting an assault with a deadly weapon about 11:20 a.m. When officers arrived, they saw a man walk out with a shotgun and raise it at them, said Sgt.

A fugitive accused of slashing actor Leonardo DiCaprio's face with a broken beer bottle is being held in Toronto on similar yet unrelated charges, according to the Los Angeles Police Department. Det. Steve Ramirez of the LAPD's Hollywood Division said Aretha Wilson, 37, has been in Canadian custody for several months in connection with an aggravated assault case in which the victim died. Toronto authorities believe that she is responsible for other assaults there too, Ramirez said.

They are sons of La Jolla, five friends who came of age on the edge of the Pacific. They all played on La Jolla High School's football team. One was the defensive player of the year. Another was a star quarterback mentored by former pro standout Doug Flutie, who said he'd be proud to have the boy as his own. Off the field, they cruised around town and hung out in picturesque coves beneath bluffs lined with spectacular homes. As they grew from youngsters to young men, they also became known as partyers who sometimes threw a few punches.

With a splash of soda, a night on the town escalated into a nightmare for Morteza Bakhtiari and John Royston, two strangers whose lives collided one January evening outside a popular south Orange County restaurant. After the beverage was tossed into his car, a seething Bakhtiari aimed his BMW at Royston and critically wounded him before fleeing, a prosecutor said Monday during closing arguments of a high-profile attempted-murder trial.

After reading The Times story, "Police Shoot Unarmed Suspect" (March 30), I have to question your grasp on reality. A car occupied by two suspects -- whom a woman had just identified as the men who robbed her -- flees. When cornered, the driver backs up his car toward police officers. They reasonably believed their lives may be in danger and shot him. Good police work, end of story. Any assertion that the suspect was unarmed is ludicrous. Hitting someone with a car is assault with a deadly weapon.