Kidnapings Los Angeles

Benjamin Markowitz, whose drug debt allegedly led to the kidnapping and murder of his young half brother last summer, was arrested Thursday in Van Nuys on suspicion of armed robbery. Markowitz, 22, had been stopped for driving without a license when he was arrested on a robbery warrant that was issued Monday. Police allege that on Dec. 23, Markowitz, armed with a gun, went to the Woodland Hills home of an acquaintance and demanded money. The victim told police that Markowitz took $200.

Benjamin Markowitz, whose alleged drug debt authorities believe led to the kidnapping and killing of his younger half-brother last summer, was arrested Thursday on suspicion of robbery. Markowitz, 22, was taken into custody about 12:30 p.m. after a routine traffic stop in Van Nuys, authorities said. A warrant for Markowitz's arrest on felony robbery charges filed Feb. 2 was issued Monday, said Officer Jason Lee, an LAPD spokesman. He is charged with armed robbery in a Dec.

A judge has ruled that jurors in the trial of four men accused of kidnapping a 3-year-old San Marino boy will not hear testimony that a police officer who says he took a vital confession in the case was subsequently fired for lying on his time card.

A 15-year-old Pasadena girl who police say was abducted three years ago by her mother's boyfriend was reunited with her family Friday after authorities in Sonora, Mexico, alerted Pasadena police to her whereabouts. The girl vanished in February 1998 after leaving Washington Middle School with Gustavo Anguiano, who had just broken up with her mother.

A Los Angeles Superior Court judge declared a mistrial Tuesday after a jury deadlocked in deliberating the fate of a 31-year-old man accused of kidnapping a San Marino boy last year and holding him for $1.5 million in ransom. Judge Lance Ito gave prosecutors until July 12 to decide whether to retry Kei Chang, one of seven people originally charged in the case. The jury, which stood at 9 to 3 in favor of not guilty, could not reach a unanimous decision.

In the last four weeks, at least eight men have been abducted from sidewalks in Panorama City, thrown into cars, robbed, and then released a few blocks away, police said Thursday. There may be many more victims who have not reported the attacks, police said. "Basically, they force the victim into the back seat, rob them, and drop them off a short distance away," said Lt. Joseph Eddy of the Los Angeles Police Department's Devonshire Division. "We want the public to be aware of this."

A 12-year-old girl told police she was forced into a lime-green van at gunpoint Tuesday and raped before being dropped off in the Jefferson Park area of Los Angeles, authorities said. About four to six men reportedly kidnapped the girl about 4 p.m. as she walked with her grandparents near West 27th Street and Arlington Avenue, said Los Angeles Police Officer Jason Lee. The men allegedly wore ski masks and at least one had a semiautomatic weapon, the girl told authorities.

An aide to Assemblyman Tony Cardenas (D-Sylmar) was carjacked and kidnapped in San Fernando but escaped by jumping from her moving car, police said Wednesday. Yolanda Fuentes, 26, Cardenas' district director, had left the assemblyman's office in the 1200 block of San Fernando Road between 10 and 11 p.m. and was putting items in the car's passenger seat when a man grabbed her from behind and began choking her, said Det. Jeff Eley of the San Fernando Police Department.

A 24-year-old Monterey Park man was sentenced Monday to life in prison for kidnapping a 3-year-old boy and demanding $1.5 million in ransom. Lung Ly received the maximum penalty for kidnapping Ernest Chan from his San Marino home in March 2000. The boy was found unharmed in a Los Angeles apartment two weeks later. A Los Angeles County Superior Court jury found Ly guilty in June on seven counts, including kidnapping for ransom, residential burglary, conspiracy and child endangerment.

A man who pleaded guilty to kidnapping his 4-year-old daughter in Los Angeles and spiriting her away to Rome was sentenced to nearly a year in federal prison Monday, but not before angering the judge by insisting his action was justifiable. Carlo Ventre, 53, told the court he abducted his daughter, Santina, to "escape from a pattern of domestic violence." He offered no details. U.S. District Judge Stephen V.