The death penalty will be sought against Yorba Linda 24-year-old Itzcoatl "Izzy" Ocampo, the accused serial killer of four homeless men and a mother and grown son fatally stabbed between October 25 and January 13, prosecutors announced today.

Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas convened a panel of senior staff and veteran homicide prosecutors to go over the case before making the call to seek the ultimate punishment for the discharged Marine, according to his office.
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The Kelly Thomas murder trial has brought Los Angeles-based television reporters to a place quite unfamiliar to them: Orange County. As a result, many are a-bumbling and a-stumbling through their live remotes, as they've obviously got the afternoon-drive traffic back to La-La Land on their minds. Poor babies.
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According to prosecutors, 20-year-old Samuel Oscar Montes came home to his Anaheim residence the afternoon of Aug. 27, 2011, and got into an argument with his girlfriend about having a gun in the house in front of their children, who were then ages 3, 1 and 1-month-old.

The fight is said to have ended when Montes grabbed the gun, it fired and a round struck Nicole Gutierrez, also 20, in the head. He allegedly fled, she died and the little kids were left to deal with it.
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The grand jury today indicted William Wallace for the murder of his wife Zazell Preston, who was whacked in the head with blunt force last Christmas in their Anaheim apartment while their 7-week-old baby and her two young children from a previous relationship were present.

Wallace, 30, is charged with one felony count of murder and he could get 25 years to life in state prison with a conviction.
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​After a third brain doctor failed to determine which colleague was right--the one who found Sonia Hermosillo mentally competent to stand trial for tossing her 7-month-old son to his death off the fourth level of a Children's Hospital of Orange County parking structure, or a second who believed the mother is not well enough--the judge made the deciding vote Monday.

Hermosillo has an April 6 arraignment date.
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​A San Juan Capistrano man faces an arraignment hearing Wednesday after the Orange County Grand Jury indicted the 34-year-old on charges of fatally stabbing--and nearly decapitating--his neighbor and assaulting a second two days later.

Robert Eugene Vasquez could get the death penalty for the Dec. 1-3, 2011, crime spree, according to the Orange County District Attorney's office (OCDA).
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​The media have totally ignored what Itzcoatl "Izzy" Ocampo is accused of doing--fatally stabbing four white men; forget the Latina mom and her son for the purposes of this twisted logic--instead spinning Orange County's latest serial killer as "a good kid," "patriotic," "a war hero," a recipient of "metals" (sic), "a good role model" and "a ladies man." So charges a "white cvil rights movement" that has posted a provocative video to make its case.
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Izzy Ocampo

​UPDATE, FEB. 21, 11:40 A.M.: To give you the proper visual for this post, picture Itzcoatl "Izzy" Ocampo at right with an al Qaeda beard. That's how he appeared in a Santa Ana courtroom this morning when he pleaded not guilty to the stabbing-murders of a mother, her son and four homeless men since Oct. 25, 2011.

How could the discharged Marine who was literally caught red-handed claim his innocence? His defense attorney explained his thinking to reporters outside court.
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Christopher Ryan Smith

​Shortly after the news broke that Edward Younghoon Shin of Irvine had been arrested for the murder of his business partner Christopher Ryan Smith of Laguna Beach, I was talking off the record with someone close to the victim's family that believed the Laguna Beach Police Department botched the disappearance case from the start.

However, the family at that time in the investigation was not yet ready to publicly express its outrage, because Smith's body had not been found. It still hasn't, as far as authorities are saying. But three family members are unloading on the city of Laguna Beach with $10 million claims each.
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​With more murders expected to bring more charges against a Yorba Linda man accused to preying on homeless men in North County (see this post), the multi-agency Homeless Homicide Task Force is joining forces with the Community Service Programs (CSP) Crisis Response Team, the Orange County Rescue Mission and Vineyard Christian Fellow to meet with the public--and especially our homeless population--Saturday afternoon.

The meeting is scheduled to run from noon to 2 p.m. at the church, 5340 E. La Palma Ave., Anaheim.
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