Norwalk Ca

On a cloudless Saturday evening 50 years ago this week, a Navy bomber carrying eight reservists thundered on a routine training flight out of Los Alamitos Naval Air Station. A minute later, less than 10 miles away, a four-engine Air Force transport plane took off from Long Beach Municipal Airport on its way to McGuire Air Force Base in New Jersey. It carried 35 passengers from various military branches and a crew of six.

A Hawaiian Gardens gang member was convicted Tuesday of murdering a Los Angeles County sheriff's deputy in June 2005. Jose Luis Orozco, 29, was found guilty by a jury of first-degree murder with special circumstances of murder of a police officer and possession of a firearm by a felon. Prosecutors will seek the death penalty when the penalty phase of his trial begins next week.

A Norwalk man was in critical condition Friday after police found him on a street near the 91 Freeway with unexplained second- and third-degree burns over 80% of his body. Rene Lopez Montez, 34, was found about 1:30 a.m. Thursday in the 1400 block of North Lemon Street with his clothes burned off. Montez, who family members say suffers from a mental illness, told police that he'd been doused with gasoline and set afire at another location, then dropped off.

A Metrolink train crashed into a stalled car in Norwalk on Friday, but no one was injured, officials said. A driver accidentally turned her car onto the tracks at the Los Nietos crossing and got stuck. She and a passenger left to call police, and a train roared up while they were away. The train's cab "got dinged up," said Metrolink spokeswoman Denise Tyrrell. "The passenger sedan got totaled." The 6:41 a.m.

A residential fire Tuesday afternoon was the result of a failed suicide attempt that left a Norwalk woman in critical condition and her two children injured, authorities said Saturday. Arson investigators are still investigating what they described as an intentional fire set by 35-year-old Joanne Santos in a rear bedroom of her house, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department .

At 8 o'clock in the morning the single-file line grows to 52 people waiting to shuffle past the sheriff's security checkpoint and into the monolithic stone courthouse. More arrive by the minute. Except for an infant too young to know the paralytic effect of dread on one's spirits and the occasional beep-beep of the metal detector, the aging lobby is hushed. Conversations pass in murmurs or, often, through tense glances or the squeeze of hands.

"There are three classes of criminal defendants." Deputy Dist. Atty. Paul Minnetian interrupts preparations for this day's criminal calendar in Los Angeles County Superior Court in Norwalk to talk about the view from his side of the counsel table. "One: Otherwise good people who make a mistake. Like the soccer mom who embezzles from the team. "Two: The repeat offenders who don't do anything heinous. Dope. Nonviolent crimes. You regard them on a sliding scale.

A fortuneteller's toy sits on the desk in the public defender's office. Shake the pirate's head and lift the eye patch to read the future. Michelle Paffile gives it a try. "Clear sailing ahead, matey." About time, she mutters impatiently. It's about time for the justice system to clear things up and deliver some justice to one defendant. Paffile is a public defender at the Los Angeles County Superior Court in Norwalk.

Cheryl and Jessie Skates were among a trickle of early bird voters Wednesday who cast ballots at the Los Angeles County registrar's office, but they were distinct for reasons beyond getting a one-month jump on the election. He is 6 feet 9, she is 6 feet 2 -- both are members of the Tip Toppers club for tall people -- and their visit to the office in Norwalk was the first since they were married there.

A man and a woman were killed and two men wounded in a shooting at a party just after midnight Sunday morning, sheriff's officials said. The woman died at the scene, in the 12200 block of Cheshire Street. The three men were taken to a hospital, where one of them died, officials said. No identities were released.