Murders

The Los Angeles County Coroner's office said Friday that it had officially ruled Michael Jackson's death a homicide and determined that a surgical anesthetic combined with other medication killed him. In a one-page statement, officials listed the cause of Jackson's June 25 death as "acute propofol intoxication" with the additional factor of "benzodiazepine effect." Three different sedatives that fall into the benzodiazepine drug class were in Jackson's system, but only the anti-anxiety medication lorazepam, often known by the brand name Ativan, was cited alongside propofol as "the primary drugs responsible for Mr. Jackson's death."

Two weeks after his murder conviction was overturned, Bruce Lisker appeared Friday in Los Angeles County Superior Court to once again face charges for the 1983 slaying of his mother. During a brief hearing in front of Judge Peter Espinoza, Lisker, dressed in a dark suit, listened as the prosecutor read the same murder charge that was filed in 1983 and asked him how he pleaded. "Not guilty," Lisker, 44, responded. In an interview with The Times after the hearing, Lisker said he was confident that he would be exonerated at a retrial.

The ex-husband of the Northern California woman charged with murdering and raping an 8-year-old girl said Friday he was in "shock and complete disbelief" when his ex-wife was arrested. John Huckaby told ABC's "Good Morning America" that he knew Melissa Huckaby as a carefree, nonviolent person he "could not see doing something like this." The two married in 2003, separated a year later and divorced in 2005. John Huckaby said he hasn't talked to his former wife for more than three years.

In their rough South Los Angeles neighborhood, Mary Romer and Alma Harvey watched over each other. So back in February 1990, Romer didn't think twice about walking across the street to Harvey's home when another friend called. They were concerned because they had not heard from the 82-year-old, who had trouble walking and was mostly housebound. Romer used a spare key to enter the house. As she crept inside, she called for her friend, but there was no answer.

The California Highway Patrol has recommended that prosecutors consider manslaughter charges against a La Habra police officer who was responding to an emergency in April when she sped through a red light and broadsided a car, killing a husband and wife, authorities said Wednesday. The case was presented to the Orange County district attorney's office Wednesday by the California Highway Patrol's Multidisciplinary Accident Investigation team, which recommended filing the charges against La Habra Police Officer Nancy Garcia.

A high school coach who helped launch several professional football careers was gunned down in front of students Wednesday by a former player who may have had psychiatric problems, authorities said. Mark Becker unloaded several rounds into Aplington-Parkersburg High School football Coach Ed Thomas and was arrested in the driveway of his parents' home soon afterward, said Kevin Winker, assistant director of the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation.

Brazilian authorities detained the wife of former boxing champion Arturo Gatti and formally accused her Sunday of killing him at a posh seaside tourist resort. Police said 23-year-old Amanda Rodrigues was taken into custody after contradictions in her interrogation and presented a formal accusation against her. Prosecutors will later decide whether she will be charged.

A respected skid row facility that provides shelter and counseling to homeless people became a site for drug dealing, leading to a double homicide inside the Lamp Lodge earlier this year, according to police detectives and court records. Los Angeles Police Department detectives allege that dealers sold rock cocaine and heroin out of the Lamp Lodge for months, a practice that ended after one of the alleged drug dealers and another man were shot to death there in April. Lamp officials said claims of widespread drug dealing at the facility are overblown.

The missing Mercedes-Benz driven by slain swimsuit model Jasmine Fiore was found Wednesday in the parking lot of a West Hollywood Trader Joe's, law enforcement sources said. Los Angeles County sheriff's spokesman Steve Whitmore said the department was notified by an individual who noticed a Mercedes appearing to match the description of Fiore's car about 12:42 p.m. in the parking lot of the grocery store in the 8600 block of Santa Monica Boulevard. "They noticed the car was dusty, dirty, had no license plates and looked out of place," said Whitmore, adding that he could not confirm whether it was Fiore's car. But the sources, who asked not to be identified because of the ongoing investigation, said the vehicle's identification number matched that of Fiore's white 2007 Mercedes CL S550.

Charles Samuel, the parolee accused of killing Lily Burk, was convicted 22 years ago of another violent robbery that bore a striking similarity to last month's abduction and slaying of the high school senior in downtown Los Angeles, according to court records reviewed by The Times. As in the Burk case, Samuel was accused of kidnapping someone -- this time an elderly man -- and driving in the man's car to an ATM, where he demanded that the man withdraw cash.