Family Friend

A convicted killer who got caught because he'd tattooed a graphic mural of the murder scene on his chest raked in more than $30,000 in unemployment benefits while he sat in the Los Angeles County jail system, a sheriff's spokesman said. Anthony Garcia, 26, had family and friends cashing his $1,600-per-month checks while he served time, said Capt. Mike Parker, spokesman for the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department. His accomplices would then deposit a portion of the money into Garcia's jail account.

The setting sun cast a golden glow Friday over hundreds of mourners who came to pay their respects to singer Etta James at the Inglewood Cemetery Mortuary. People began lining up an hour before the viewing began, reminiscing about their favorite songs as her voice boomed from chapel's speakers. "Whenever I hear that song, I freeze," Donald Hicks, 67, of Inglewood said about James' mega-hit "At Last. " "I even pull over when it comes on. " Many in attendance viewed James as a close family friend after years of inviting her into their homes via their stereo speakers.

The man accused in the largest mass murder in Orange County history pleaded not guilty Wednesday to shooting and killing eight people at a Seal Beach beauty salon, including his ex-wife. Scott Evans Dekraai, wearing a mustard-yellow jumpsuit, his hands handcuffed in front of him, said nothing during his brief arraignment before a courtroom crowded with emotional family and friends of the victims of the Oct. 12 shooting spree at Salon Meritage. Dekraai was kept behind a barrier during the hearing at the Central Justice Center in Santa Ana and did not look at the crowd.

This season "Terra Nova" has exhumed the Cretaceous period, but can it also help resurrect another block of time that would seem equally challenging to revive — the family viewing hour? The heavily promoted prime-time show, dubbed internally at Fox as "Little House on the Prairie with Dinosaurs," is an eco-action-adventure series built around a family of five that travels back 85 million years to give humans a second chance at caring for Earth. The ratings have been solid for the show, which counts Steven Spielberg and former News Corp.

They were expert stylists, artists and athletes. Devoted mothers and fathers, and outdoors enthusiasts too. Six women and two men were shot to death Wednesday in Seal Beach when, authorities say, Scott Dekraai opened fire at Salon Meritage, killing five employees, two customers and a man parked outside. It was the deadliest shooting in Orange County history. Friends, family members and clients offered these portraits of the victims. :: Michelle Marie Fournier's calling was cutting and styling hair.

Onetime French presidential hopeful Dominique Strauss-Kahn on Sunday acknowledged "moral fault" in a sexual encounter with a New York hotel chambermaid, but insisted that he engaged in no "aggression or constraint" that should have resulted in his arrest. Speaking in a prime-time television interview, Strauss-Kahn, 62, gave his first public explanation of the events that led to his jailing on sexual assault charges, which were later dropped after prosecutors began doubting the maid's credibility.

A 2-year-old boy who was bound and gagged was found crying inside a makeshift room Tuesday afternoon in a Banning apartment where his parents and a woman were slain, law enforcement authorities said. Police late Tuesday had not established a motive for the slayings but said the incident did not appear to be a murder-suicide. The boy was found by police in a very small space in the back of a room that had been converted to a bathroom in the apartment in the 100 block of North Phillips Street about three hours after they initially responded, authorities said.

After a long car ride, my wife and I stopped at Lovers Point Park in Pacific Grove to let our 4-year-old daughter, Ediza, release some energy. Its beach is popular with kids who like to ride boogie boards and check out hermit crabs in the tide pools. Ediza chased seagulls and collected seashells. We eventually made our way to Veteran's Memorial Park in Monterey, where a friend had set up her 1984 Volkswagen camper van - named Brownie - for us to sleep in. The park, about a mile uphill from Old Monterey and the Fisherman's Wharf area, feels like a forested oasis with 40 campsites available on a first-come, first-served basis.

Reporting from San Diego Jeremy Henwood, who survived three combat tours as a Marine but was mortally wounded during a routine patrol as a San Diego police officer, was remembered Friday as a "true warrior who stood in harm's way. " Police Capt. Lawrence McKinney, commander of the mid-city division where Henwood served, told 3,500 people assembled at the Rock Church that Henwood "went boldly into harm's way, knowing full well that he might not come back someday. " McKinney urged the crowd to remember Henwood's courage and dedication to public service as a Marine and a police officer, rather than "the cowardly act of one lost soul," a reference to Dejon Marquee White, 23, Henwood's assailant.

He can piece together only fragments. A trip, a road, a long drive home. He was asleep, he thinks, when the SUV began to swerve. His trainer's voice was full of panic just before they flipped and began to roll. "Please," he recalled telling someone. "Please call my dad and tell him we had an accident. " Photos: After fire, a young man's life restarts Derek Thomas, 19, had been heading home to San Diego from a high-altitude training camp in Mammoth. When he arrived by emergency jet at the Grossman Burn Center at West Hills Hospital & Medical Center, he was unconscious.