Witnesses

Two witnesses who trailed a pair of young suspects to a home after a fatal shooting in South Los Angeles on Thursday morning were hailed as heroes and cited as examples of how citizen involvement can help curb the area's burgeoning homicide rate. The suspects, 12 and 14, were arrested less than two hours after the gang-related ambush that left Kevin Jones, 21, dead and Jones' 16-year-old male companion seriously wounded. The 16-year-old was not identified. Police Chief William J.

Efforts to save convicted murderer Coleman Wayne Gray from execution next week took a new twist as witnesses recanted testimony that led a jury to impose the death penalty on Gray 11 years ago. In affidavits given to Gray's lawyers, a co-defendant and two other witnesses said they lied under pressure from police and the prosecutor, who has denied the charge. Gray, 39, is scheduled to die for the 1985 murder of a grocery store manager. Gray's attorneys have appealed to the U.S.

White House personnel director Bob Nash and Sam Heuer, the attorney for James B. McDougal, appeared before the Whitewater grand jury. Afterward, both declined to comment on their testimony. In 1986, Bill Clinton, then governor of Arkansas, and Nash, his economic development liaison, visited McDougal at his office trailer south of Little Rock.

Several East Los Angeles residents who witnessed the robbery and stabbing of an ice cream vendor Sunday chased down the two alleged assailants and held them until police arrived. Jose Torres, 18, and Macareo DeJesus, 21, are being held at the East Los Angeles sheriff's station on suspicion of attempted murder and robbery, according to a sheriff's spokesman. Encarnacion Garcia, 50, the vendor who suffered multiple stab wounds in the 7:30 p.m. attack at Atlantic Boulevard and Repetto Street, was in serious condition at Santa Marta Hospital.

I don't know about you, but I sure feel much better now that Assembly Speaker Willie Brown and state Sen. Quentin Kopp (I-San Francisco) have made it illegal for witnesses to accept money from the media for their knowledge in regard to a pending case (Sept. 27). You know what would happen don't you--give the little people a dollar, and they would proceed to sell their mother, brother, sister, cousin, etc. I think the very idea behind the measure (now law) is insulting. The truth is the truth, no matter how it is said, how it is arrived at, or when it is said, or if there is money paid for the sharing of that truth.

The trial of former President Hosni Mubarak took a scintillating turn Wednesday when the top general in Egypt's ruling military council was summoned to testify next week about the crackdown that killed hundreds of protesters in last winter's revolution. Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi is to sit across from his deposed boss in closed sessions, as will former vice president and intelligence chief Omar Suleiman. Tantawi and Suleiman have loomed over the nation for decades and are inextricably linked to Mubarak's repressive rule.

A witness' account of a sniper suspect in a cream-colored van, which touched off a furious dragnet late Monday involving police helicopters and roadblocks in two states, has been thrown out, law enforcement officials said Thursday. The latest frustration in the case underscored the scant evidence police have assembled, despite more than two weeks of shootings that have terrorized the Washington region, leaving nine dead and two wounded.

Crime still doesn't pay in Cerritos. But reporting certain crimes may earn vigilant residents up to $25,000. The City Council has approved a new system of rewards aimed at generating information on typically tough-to-solve crimes. Only information on violent crimes and those involving illegal gunfire can fetch rewards under the law. And only tips that lead to convictions are to be compensated. The size of the reward would vary depending on the crime.

Police said Wednesday they are looking for a bicyclist who may have witnessed a car accident that led to the death of a 40-year-old man earlier this month. Donald Bond Thompson of Huntington Beach died on Oct. 4 of internal injuries suffered when his bike was struck by a truck Sept. 11, Huntington Beach Police Lt. Ed McErlain said.

Felicia "Snoop" Pearson, known for her role on HBO's "The Wire," was released from jail in Baltimore after being picked up on a warrant for refusing to cooperate with prosecutors handling a murder case in which she is a witness. At a Circuit Court hearing Friday, an attorney for Pearson, who had planned to be in New York for the filming of a movie, told the judge she had not received court notices and was willing to honor her obligations as a witness to a killing. Authorities said Pearson witnessed Steven James Lashley stab three men, killing one, in 2005.