Murders Santa Barbara County

Declaring that authorities violated restrictions on search warrants, a Santa Barbara County judge has thrown out evidence seized from several schools and the home of the parents of David Attias, a college student accused of running down and killing four people in February. Superior Court Judge Thomas R.

Remains found by hikers in the Los Padres National Forest have been identified as the body of a 15-year-old Woodland Hills boy missing since Aug. 6, Santa Barbara County authorities said Monday. Lt. Michael Burridge, a Sheriff's Department spokesman, said the body of Nicholas Sam Markowitz was discovered in a shallow grave on Saturday. His family had reported him missing four days earlier.

Ventura County prosecutors are driving an effort to free an Oxnard man they believe was wrongly convicted of murder in Santa Barbara, sparking a dispute between authorities in the neighboring coastal counties. Efren Cruz, 26, was found guilty of murder, attempted murder and other charges in the shooting of two men during a gang-related melee in a downtown Santa Barbara parking garage four years ago.

A 15-year-old West Hills boy was shot execution style as he lay bound and gagged in a shallow grave near here because his older brother allegedly had not paid a $36,000 debt to a drug dealer, authorities said Thursday. Santa Barbara County sheriff's investigators arrested four people Wednesday and are seeking a fifth in the slaying of Nicholas Markowitz, who was shot nine times in the head and torso last week in the mountains north of Santa Barbara.

Still numbed by the loss of her 15-year-old son, Susan Markowitz said Wednesday she was stunned by reports that two dozen people may have seen Nicholas Markowitz while he was held captive before his execution-style killing Aug. 8. "I have no idea who they are or what they were thinking, or what their mentality was," Markowitz said. "Maybe they didn't know. "There are several people, I wonder if there are any ethical values in their heart," she added.

Still numbed by the loss of her 15-year-old son, Susan Markowitz said Wednesday she was stunned by reports that two dozen people may have seen Nicholas Markowitz while he was held captive before his execution-style murder Aug. 8. "I have no idea who they are or what they were thinking, or what their mentality was," said Markowitz, of West Hills. "Maybe they didn't know." She said, "I honestly believe everyone knows between right and wrong, and you have to listen to that little voice up there."

Authorities arrested a fourth person in the Santa Barbara County slaying of a Caltrans engineer who was shot to death on a secluded stretch of sand used by nudists at El Capitan State Beach. Sheriff's deputies and a special weapons and tactics team surrounded an apartment in Roseville, near Sacramento, and arrested Rickey Lee Rogers, 24, in the slaying Sept. 21 of Phil Bogdanoff.

Speaking out shortly after his son's first court appearance on murder charges, Hollywood TV and film director Daniel Attias expressed his family's sorrow Tuesday for the carnage the troubled college freshman allegedly wrought Friday when his Saab careened into a crowd of strolling students, killing four people and critically injuring another.

A hearing to determine whether a 26-year-old Oxnard man was wrongly convicted of murder four years ago took an unusual turn Thursday when prosecutors called the defendant as their first witness. "The people call Efren Cruz," said Santa Barbara County Deputy Dist. Atty. Hilary Dozer, drawing a quick objection by the defense.