Murders Los Angeles

The list of celebrity lawyers seeking to free two teenagers charged with a stabbing murder outside a party at a million-dollar Encino home continues to grow. On the first day of what promises to be a weeks-long preliminary hearing, retired state Supreme Court Justice Armand Arabian made an appearance Wednesday as co-counsel for Sayat Oruncakciel. He joins Death Row Records attorney David Kenner in defending the youth. Robert Shapiro, a former member of the O.J.

The list of celebrity lawyers seeking to free two teenagers charged with a stabbing murder outside a party at an Encino mansion continues to grow. On the first day of what promises to be a weeks-long preliminary hearing, retired Supreme Court Justice Armand Arabian appeared Wednesday as co-counsel for Sayat Oruncakciel. He joins Death Row Records attorney David Kenner in defending the youth. Robert Shapiro, a former member of the O.J.

The trial of a Hollywood man accused of beating his 2 1/2-year-old son to death went to the jury Wednesday, with the defense arguing that his girlfriend--already imprisoned for the crime and then freed--may have been the killer after all.

Los Angeles police say Jose Luis Saenz killed two unarmed gang rivals near the Aliso Village housing project and then kidnapped, raped and shot to death his ex-girlfriend--the mother of his child--to keep her from reporting what he did. Homicide detectives from the LAPD's Hollenbeck Division are conducting an intensive search for Saenz, 23, whom they described as armed and dangerous.

The defense opened its case Friday in the trial of David Helms on charges of beating to death his 2 1/2-year-old son Lance, waiving an opening statement and calling witnesses who appeared to do Helms more harm than good. Before the trial, defense attorney Jack Stone maintained that conflicting medical evidence raised legitimate doubts about whether it was Helms or his former girlfriend, Eve Wingfield, who fatally beat the toddler in their North Hollywood apartment.

A Los Angeles County medical examiner, testifying in the murder trial of David Helms, told a jury Wednesday that Helms' 2-year-old son Lance was beaten instantly "into nonexistence," disavowing as "just ridiculous" his previous estimate that it took 30 to 60 minutes for the toddler to die after he was beaten. Dr. James K. Ribe described Lance's injuries in vivid detail, from a split liver to broken ribs and massive internal bleeding.

A 42-year-old man was shot to death in his southwest Los Angeles neighborhood early Wednesday during an argument with another man, police said. Samuel D. Thomas died in the 1:30 a.m. dispute in the 1400 block of West 46th Street, said Los Angeles police officer Don Cox, a spokesman for the department. Police said they were looking for 27-year-old Jackie King, the man with whom Thomas had been arguing.

Drinking beers and joking in the bleary hours of morning, the group of men playing cards in the courtyard of a Willowbrook apartment complex said they didn't think much of the confrontation when it happened. Their neighbor, Sergio Chavez, had opened the screen door of his tiny clapboard cottage and brusquely told them to keep the noise down while his family struggled to sleep in the stifling heat.

A man in his early 20s was found shot to death early Sunday in the 12600 block of Pierce Street, police said. Los Angeles Police Det. Miles Taylor, of the Foothill Division, said officers responding to a "shots fired" call about 6 a.m. found the man lying in the street. The man, who had no identification, was shot in the torso, Taylor said. Police early Sunday had no witnesses or suspects.

After spending three months in Juvenile Hall on murder charges and costing their parents hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal bills for big-name defense lawyers, two private-school-educated teens were released Wednesday after authorities dismissed the case against them, citing insufficient evidence. "There's nothing else I pretty much care about right now but being free," Sayat Oruncakciel, 18, said outside the Van Nuys courthouse. "It feels great."