(Feb. 23, 2007) -- The L.A. County District Attorney's office has charged five alleged gang members in connection with the December 28 murder of a man they allegedly believed had witnessed the December 15 killing of a 14 year-old girl in the Harbor Gateway area...and one of the men charged with murdering the man is already facing charges in connection with murdering the girl.
The D.A.'s office says in a release that it's charged Jose Covarrubias, 20. Robert Gonzalez, 29, Raul Silva, 31, Daniel Aguilar and Jonathan Fajardo, 18, in connection with the December 28 killing of Christopher Ash, 25, whose body was found in the middle of a Carson street stabbed numerous times, his throat cut. Defendant Fajardo in the Ash murder is already facing charges in connection with the Greene murder.
The D.A.'s office says in a release that all five defendants in the Ash murder were allegedly "identified by authorities as gang members" and each is "accused of one count of murder with the special circumstances of intentional murder of a witness to a crime, lying in wait, that the defendants were active participants in a criminal street gang and the murder was carried out to further the activities of the gang." The D.A.-filed complaint alleges that Covarrubias and Gonzales personally used a knife to murder Mr. Ash.
The D.A. has previously charged that defendants Fajardo and Ernesto Alcarez, 20, walked up to a Harbor Gateway area residence on December 15 and opened fire, killing Ms. Greene in what the D.A. alleges was a hate crime murder. Fajardo and Alcarez are set for arraignment in LB Superior Court on March 8.
Ms. Greene's killing set off a round of publicized anti-gang actions by L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, Councilwoman Janice Hahn and L.A.P.D. Chief William Bratton.
The D.A.'s office will decide whether to seek the death penalty against any or all of the defendants in the Ash murder as that case moves closer to trial, the D.A.'s release indicated.
Deputy D.A. John Allen Ramseyer of the Organized Crime Division's Hate Crimes Unit filed the latest case...and is also prosecuting the Greene murder case.
