Murders California

They arose early and got themselves all decked out: she in a midcalf dress of some soft beige, he in a jacket and tie--the first tie Scott Roston's roommate had ever seen him wear. Scott Roston and Karen Waltz raced to Las Vegas on Feb. 4 in his leased red Toyota two-seater and were wed in a $25 civil ceremony in a marriage commissioner's office enlivened by some blue and white artificial flowers. Then they raced back to Santa Monica.

A federal grand jury has indicted a Costa Mesa man on murder, bank robbery, racketeering and assault charges in connection with a crime spree across California, according to an indictment unsealed this week. Ten others also were indicted in the case. Authorities say Anh The Duong, 26, is the ringleader of a gang that netted as much as $7.8 million from robbing jewelry stores, computer component manufacturers, supermarkets and banks.

A Santa Monica chiropractor was indicted on a second-degree federal murder charge Tuesday, accused of killing his bride of nine days by "beating her, strangling her and throwing her overboard" from their honeymoon cruise ship last month. Scott Robin Roston, 36, has claimed that vengeful Israeli agents killed his wife to frame him in retaliation for his 1987 book criticizing his "torture" by what he called the "Israeli Mafia."

A 26-year-old man suspected of killing six people across the state gouged his arms last week in an attempt to kill himself at Men's Central Jail in Los Angeles, authorities said. Anh The Duong is in a coma on life support at County-USC Medical Center after slicing two arteries with a home-made "shank," said Det. Christine Carnes of the sheriff's Homicide Bureau. Sheriff's Department records indicate that Duong was transferred to the County-USC jail ward at 5:03 a.m. Sept 11.

James Newman Hood sits in a quaint, ornate courtroom, rocking slowly in his wooden chair, as lawyers and witnesses chart his descent from the golden existence and happy family life he once knew to the prospect of financial ruin and a life behind bars.

Eight years after the bullet-riddled body of New York impresario Roy Radin was found in a dry creek bed near Gorman, a jury Monday found onetime drug dealer and would-be Hollywood deal-maker Karen Greenberger and three bodyguards guilty of murder and kidnaping in what became known as the "Cotton Club" murder. Greenberger, 43, and Robert Lowe, 44, were convicted of second-degree murder and kidnaping, requiring an automatic life sentence without possibility of parole.

One of two Israeli nationals who were aboard a Mexico cruise ship when Karen Roston died on her honeymoon appeared Thursday as a surprise prosecution witness, announcing he was not a secret agent for the Israeli government, but a wedding photographer on vacation. Maurice Haziza's testimony in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles landed a strong blow to Scott Roston's claim that Israeli agents had strangled his wife, hoisted her overboard and tried to frame him for the murder.

Scott Roston, a Santa Monica chiropractor who claimed that his bride was murdered by Israeli agents in a campaign of terror against him, was convicted Wednesday of strangling her himself and throwing her overboard on the last night of their honeymoon cruise. Roston, 36, sagged when a Los Angeles federal court jury found him guilty of second-degree murder on the high seas. His lawyer said he would challenge the authority of American officials to prosecute the killing, which occurred outside U.S.

It was a bright Saturday afternoon in February, 1988, when Coast Guard searchers spotted the body of Karen Waltz Roston in the ocean off the coast of San Diego. Her bruised and bloodied face were the first concrete indications that Roston's honeymoon cruise to Mexico might not have ended as her new husband had said. Scott Roston had told the cruise ship's captain that his 26-year-old wife had fallen overboard. The bruises on her forehead and neck belied that explanation, authorities contend.

The co-founder of a psychotherapeutic discipline called neuro-linguistic programming was found innocent on Thursday of shooting a prostitute to death. The case of psychotherapist Richard Bandler, charged in the death of Corine Christensen, was given to the jury late Wednesday, following a trial that packed courtrooms daily. The jury rendered its verdict after only 5 1/2 hours of deliberation.

Nikolay Soltys, accused in the bloody slayings of six family members, has been charged with a seventh murder--that of his unborn child, prosecutors said Tuesday. Sacramento County Dist. Atty. Jan Scully made the surprise announcement just hours before Soltys stood under heavy guard for his first court appearance since his capture last week.

In a draining, daylong interrogation, Nikolay Soltys confessed to the slayings of half a dozen family members and blamed the rampage on relatives he suspected of besmirching his name, law enforcement sources said Friday. Grim-faced and without a lawyer, Soltys expressed no remorse during the eight-hour session after his arrest in connection with the deaths of his pregnant wife, 3-year-old son and four other relatives, sources close to the case said.

Gov. Gray Davis pledged $50,000 Tuesday to the reward fund in the hunt for multiple-murder suspect Nikolay Soltys. The state contribution brought to $120,000 the sum offered for information leading to the arrest and conviction of Soltys, a Ukrainian immigrant suspected of stabbing six members of his family to death. Davis' move came as police continued a nationwide manhunt for Soltys, who disappeared Aug. 20.

A 54-year-old man charged with the 1994 killing of a woman whose remains were found in the Yuba County foothills has pleaded not guilty. Herman L. Hobbs appeared Monday before Yuba County Judge James Dawson, who appointed a public defender to represent him. Authorities said Hobbs was linked through DNA to the killing of Brenda Tucker, whose remains were discovered in February. She had suffered a fatal gunshot wound to the head.

The FBI added Nikolay Soltys to its national most-wanted list Thursday, even as authorities reported several local sightings of the fugitive suspected of murdering his wife, young son and four other relatives. Meanwhile, a newspaper in Soltys' native Ukraine bolstered earlier reports that the 27-year-old immigrant had a history of domestic abuse and mental instability, saying he attacked his young wife and son with an ax three years ago in their homeland.

Environmentalists bought the Davis Canyon property where Rex Allen Krebs murdered two college students in one of San Luis Obispo County's most horrific crimes. The Nature Conservancy took possession of the 240-acre property from Muriel Wright on July 19, along with an adjacent 280-acre parcel. The land is next to the 1,500-acre Hibberd Preserve in the Irish Hills.

Raul Zamudio finally was turning his life around after a failed job and a divorce. At 41, he found steady work as a counselor at a Santa Clara County Probation Department boys' ranch, and he bought a new car and a house in a nice neighborhood here. But in May, all that came to an end when Hollister police arrested him in the Easter weekend rape and murder of Martha De La Rosa, a well-liked and hard-working 22-year-old college student.

A 17-year-old high school wrestler will be charged with the rape and murder of a schoolmate, according to San Benito County Dist. Atty. Harry Damkar. He announced Friday that the teen-ager, whom he did not name, will be charged with the July 26 kidnaping, rape, robbery and first-degree murder of 16-year-old Lisa Koehler.

A 26-year-old man suspected in the killings of six people across the state appeared in court Monday for the first time since his arrest last week in Costa Mesa. A judge at Los Angeles County Superior Court agreed to postpone until Aug. 9 Ahn The Duong's arraignment on charges of murdering four people in an El Monte nightclub in 1999. He also is a suspect in a jewelry store robbery and shootout this year at Fashion Island in Newport Beach.

In a surprising series of decisions, the state parole board is quietly defying California's law-and-order governor and setting some murderers and kidnappers free. Gov. Gray Davis' approach to parole has drawn fire from inmate advocates and some judges, who contend that he has a blanket policy against releasing prisoners convicted of homicide.