Denise Gragg

Two Orange County teen-agers were found guilty Friday of first-degree murder in the 1992 New Year's Eve killing of a 17-year-old honors student who was bludgeoned and buried in a back-yard grave in a case that gained nationwide attention as a troubling portrait of youth violence. Kirn Kim, 18, and Abraham Acosta, 17, were the last of five youths convicted in the killing of Stuart A. Tay, a high school student from Orange who aspired to be a doctor like his father.

Ruling at the end of the prosecution's case Wednesday, a Superior Court judge refused to dismiss a kidnapping charge that will make John J. Famalaro eligible for the death penalty if he is convicted of killing Newport Beach resident Denise Huber. Deputy Public Defender Denise Gragg argued that the prosecution had not proved that Huber was taken forcibly when she disappeared from the side of the Costa Mesa Freeway nearly six years ago while on her way home from a rock concert.

Attorneys for John J. Famalaro, who is accused of killing a Newport Beach woman and storing her body in a freezer for years, began a vigorous attempt in court Tuesday to have all of the evidence in the high-profile case thrown out. Famalaro, 39, is accused of kidnapping, sexually assaulting and bludgeoning 23-year-old Denise Huber after her car broke down on the Corona del Mar Freeway in June 1991.

The parents of murder victim Denise Huber will take the stand today as the penalty phase of John J. Famalaro's trial begins in Orange County Superior Court. Dennis and Ione Huber are expected to testify about the effect the murder of their only daughter has had on their lives. The couple has attended each day of the trial and wept last Thursday when Famalaro was convicted of murdering the 23-year-old Newport Beach woman in 1991.

A Lake Elsinore man accused of kidnapping and killing 5-year-old Samantha Runnion of Stanton is seeking to again postpone a preliminary hearing that will determine if there is enough evidence to bring him to trial. Alejandro Avila's attorneys filed a motion late Tuesday asking for another delay of the proceeding, now scheduled for Monday, arguing that they need more time to analyze DNA evidence that allegedly connects their client to the crime.

A hit man will be sentenced in June to life in prison after pleading guilty to gunning down a woman at her husband's behest -- then killing the husband as well -- five years ago on a remote stretch of Ortega Highway. Prosecutors decided two weeks ago not to pursue the death penalty against Dennis Earl Godley, 35, after learning he had been tortured and abused as a child. Godley pleaded guilty Friday, and Orange County Superior Court Judge William R. Froeberg will formally sentence him June 11.

The Orange County Board of Supervisors ended an eight-month search for the county's next public defender Wednesday by promoting a veteran from department ranks. Debbie Kwast, who joined the public defender's office out of law school 25 years ago, has served as interim public defender since January, at a salary of $168,000 a year, which will now be renegotiated. She will oversee nearly 200 attorneys and a budget of $44 million.

John Joseph Famalaro, one of Orange County's most notorious murderers, was sentenced to death Friday by a Superior Court judge who spoke of the terror that his victim, Denise Huber, must have felt during the final moments of her life. "Just imagine what was going through her mind," Judge John J.

A Santa Ana police officer is under criminal and internal investigation for allegedly firing his gun on the freeway while returning from a concert at Staples Center with a group of Orange County prosecutors. Officer Derrick Watkins, a gang investigator, is suspected of firing a handgun from a vehicle on the Gardena Freeway near Acacia Avenue in Compton. Santa Ana Police Capt. Bruce Carlson said the May 21 incident occurred at 12:30 a.m.

Prosecutors told a judge Monday that cat hair, a sneaker print and tire tracks link a Lake Elsinore man to the kidnapping and murder of 5-year-old Samantha Runnion. The revelations came as Orange County Dist. Atty. Tony Rackauckas argued against further delays in the prosecution of Alejandro Avila, even offering to proceed without introducing DNA evidence if that would keep the proceedings on track.