Ws 18th street maze gang vs all Ws dino Bloods

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Teen will stand trial in shooting


SAN BERNARDINO - Michael Johnson had just stepped away from a party to retrieve a compact disc from a car.

As soon as he was outside a home in the 1900 block of 18th Street, three young men one armed with an assault weapon opened fire.

Johnson, 19, who graduated from Arroyo Valley High School in 2004, died of the multiple gunshot wounds he suffered in the Dec. 11 shooting.

On Wednesday, Superior Court Judge Donna Gunnell Garza ordered one of the three defendants charged in Johnson's death, Christopher Taylor, to trial. Taylor, 16, is being tried as an adult.

Police said the December shooting was in retaliation for the gang- related shooting of William Sessions on July 13, 2004.

But Johnson had no gang ties, authorities say. His killers didn't ask any questions or yell out any gang names before firing.

Johnson was the latest victim to get caught in the crossfire of a gang war between two of the city's increasingly violent street gangs: Little Zion Manor Bloods and the 18th Street Gang, authorities said.

"You have two gangs that are at war that are a couple of blocks away from each other, so the violence is just going to escalate," said prosecutor Cheryl Kersey, lead attorney in the District Attorney's Office's gang unit.

Johnson's death came about a month after 11-year-old Mynesha Crenshaw was killed in what police also have called a gang- retaliation shooting in the Del Rosa area of San Bernardino.

Mynesha was having dinner with her family on Nov. 13 when members of the PPHG street gang, also known as Pimps, Players, Hustlers and Gangsters, opened fire on the corner apartment near Mountain Avenue and Citrus Street.

Detective Gary Robertson testified in court Wednesday that the December party that Johnson attended was at the home of Michael Slaughter and his family. A member of the 18th Street Gang, Slaughter was arrested and charged in the death of Sessions, a member of the Little Zion gang, Robertson said.

The case against Slaughter was dismissed Jan. 18, however, according to court records. Details were not available at press time.

Robertson said a witness to Johnson's death, Terry Ozane, told police he saw Taylor walking with two other young men in dark clothing but lost sight of them.

Ozane recognized Taylor as someone he had known since sixth grade and considered a friend, police said.

All three of the men were armed, and they were talking about having "to put in some work," Ozane told police. That means they had to do some type of job for their gang, Robertson testified.

About a minute later, Ozane heard a loud bang, similar to a shotgun, and then several more shots from the 18th Street area, Robertson testified.

"(Ozane) became scared during the gunshots, and he ran into his apartment complex," the detective said.

Outside Slaughter's home, investigators found 16 shell casings and a live round. Nine were 7.65-mm casings. Six were 7.62x39 casings, which are common to an SKS or AK-47 assault weapon. Investigators also found one shotgun casing and one live shotgun round, according to police.

Under questioning from defense attorney Ed Congdon, San Bernardino police Officer Travis Walker testified that Taylor's name does not appear in the Police Department's database for the Little Zion gang. Walker also said he was not aware of Taylor having any tattoos reflecting that he belonged to the gang.

Ozane once was a member of the Little Zion gang, but Walker said he is no longer affiliated.

Congdon declined to comment after the court hearing.

The other men identified as defendants in the case are Derick Johnson, 21, who is not related to the victim, and Anthony Watkins, 24, according to authorities. Neither was in court Wednesday.

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some more...
A Westside menace?


SAN BERNARDINO - On this city's Westside, Keith Slaughter Jr., police say, has fostered such a menacing presence that people are often afraid to speak against him.

"There are many people who mention his name and say they're afraid of him. He's psychopathic, or at least it appears to be," police Lt. Scott Paterson said. "He's been a bad person, someone (I would) call a predator. He's one of those 10-percenters who goes out and is involved in multiple crimes."

A person of interest in several shootings, homicides and other crimes in the city in the last two years, Slaughter, 19, is now behind bars, charged with attempted murder for the Jan. 24 shooting of a man on West Alturas Street. He is also charged with auto theft.

Slaughter pleaded not guilty to the charges Thursday in San Bernardino Superior Court.

Slaughter remains in custody at West Valley Detention Center in Rancho Cucamonga in lieu of $1 million bail.

More charges, however, may surface against Slaughter. Police fanned out across the city on Friday, trying to tie up loose ends on other criminal cases where Slaughter has been identified as a person of interest.

If enough information surfaces in those cases, county prosecutors may have enough to try Slaughter as a career criminal, Paterson said, adding that Slaughter is tied to several criminal cases in San Bernardino and Redlands.

Finding witnesses willing to testify in court is presenting the biggest challenge for detectives.

"We have to get more than just people on the street saying it. We have to go out and get factual evidence," Paterson said.

Police arrested Slaughter about 9:10 p.m. Tuesday near Base Line and Cole Avenue. He has been charged in the Jan. 24 shooting of James Edward Matthews, 20, in the 1600 block of West Alturas Street near Medical Center Drive.

Matthews' right ankle was practically blown off from the blast of a .223-caliber rifle as he sprinted down the street shortly after 10 a.m. He took cover behind a tree and watched in horror as dirt exploded around him from the impact of bullets hitting the ground, according to police reports filed in San Bernardino Superior Court in support of Slaughter's arrest.

Police recovered numerous spent shell casings from the scene, as well as bone fragments from Matthews' ankle that formed a trail leading to his sister's apartment, where he crawled after he was shot.

Matthews identified the gunman as his nephew, Edward Griffin, 20, who was reportedly in a stolen blue Ford Expedition with Slaughter and another unidentified male. He identified Slaughter as the driver, court records show.

Police believe Slaughter and the two men he was with shot Matthews to boost their notoriety with their gang.

Later that evening, another shooting occurred in an alley in the 300 block of West 19th Street, near D Street. Another man was shot in the leg and survived. Police also recovered from the scene .223- caliber shell casings. The stolen Ford Expedition was found near the scene, and inside was a spent .223-caliber shell casing. Police also found a 9 mm handgun and a Ruger Red Hawk .44-caliber Magnum revolver in the vehicle, according to police reports.

Slaughter has not been charged in that shooting.

About three weeks after the shootings, on Feb. 9, Griffin reportedly was shot to death by rival gang members on Ninth Street near Medical Center Drive. Arrested in connection with his death were brothers Patrick Macon, 26, and Marsean Macon, 34, members of the Macon Mafia, another Westside gang, police said.

Police could not confirm Friday if Griffin's slaying was in retaliation for Matthews' shooting.

According to a report prepared by San Bernardino gang officer Travis Walker, Slaughter and Griffin are suspects in several shootings and homicides across the city's Westside in the last two years.

Among the slayings Slaughter is considered a person of interest in is the May shooting death of 14-year-old Jarred Mitchell, who was killed as he danced in a driveway with friends in the 1700 block of West Home Avenue.

Slaughter was subsequently arrested on suspicion of threatening an 18-year-old woman who witnessed that shooting because he thought she was associating with a rival gang, police said. He posted bail shortly after his arrest.

Information police have gathered on Slaughter provides startling insights into a callousness and his family's alleged history of gang activity.

Since the late 1980s, the Slaughter family has been embroiled in a feud with various local gangs, and has controlled a neighborhood on the Westside bounded by California Street to the east, State Street to the west, Arizona Street to the north and 16th Street to the south, according to a profile written by Walker.

"Due to the Slaughters' control over this area, the Slaughters, and other local street gangs, began to refer to the Slaughters as '18th Street,"' Walker said in his report.

Slaughter's mother, Julie Slaughter, 37, painted a different picture of her son on Friday.

She said her family has been targeted by Walker, who along with other officers kicked through her front door Thursday night and forced her 14-year-old daughter to the floor facedown and handcuffed her while they searched her residence. She said her daughter suffered a chest contusion and sprained wrist from the incident.

On another occasion, she said, Walker told her husband he needed to "start getting his car washes together so he can bury his son."

Police dispute those claims.

"He's (Walker) been around much too long to make a stupid comment like that. I can't imagine something being said in that context," Paterson said. "If something about car washes were said, it probably wasn't in that context."

Julie Slaughter said her son and Jarred Mitchell, the boy slain on West Home Avenue in May, were third and fourth cousins. She said the two were friends, and Jarred would visit, and the two and other neighborhood teens would dance together in the garage.

She said Slaughter had no reason to kill Jarred.

She said life changed drastically for her son when he was 16 years old.

"He went to a Halloween party and was shot in his chest, back and arm," she said. "He was never the same."

She said Slaughter fully recovered physically, but was emotionally scarred.

"His attitude developed once he was shot. He became nervous and leery. He would be having like paranoid attacks," she said. "He thought people were out to kill him, and I don't know why."

Before his arrest, Slaughter had been living with his girlfriend and 9-month-old son in Redlands, she said.

Contact writer Joe Nelson at (909) 386-3887 or via e-mail at joe.nelson@sbsun.com.

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Retrial begins in 2007 murder case

SAN BERNARDINO - Jarrett Ojomoh was walking to work with a friend through a tumultuous Westside neighborhood when he was shot and killed in 2007.

Both men worked with Ojomoh's mother at a real estate business, and they got caught up in a shooting that prosecutors say was gang payback.

The man suspected of firing the gun, Robert Harold McKinney, is back in San Bernardino Superior Court for a re-trial on charges of murder and attempted murder. Testimony began Thursday morning, following the lawyers' opening remarks.

Ojomoh was shot on April 11, 2007, as the pair walked east on 19th Street, near Medical Center Drive, in the area near the Dorjils apartments.

"Unfortunately, there was a lot of gang turmoil during that time," Deputy District Attorney Lisa Rogan said in her opening remarks. Specifically, the Delmann Heights and 18th Street Maze gangs were fueding, she said.

Neither Ojomoh or his friend were gang members. But Ojomoh was wearing a red sweatshirt and his friend's brother was linked to the Delmann Heights gang, say prosecutors.

Two cars pulled up as the men walked. Gunshots were fired, and the two men ran. The friend scaled a wall and escaped, but Ojomoh was shot and later died at his girlfriend's nearby apartment.

The defense told the jury that there is no physical evidence linking McKinney to the shooting. There are neither fingerprints nor a discarded weapon that link to McKinney, Deputy Public Defender Rod Curbelo told the jury.

Both sides point to witness credibility as significant to the case. Witnesses reportedly identified McKinney as the shooter to police, say prosecutors. But the defense counters that witness accounts are inconsistent.

Also, a key witness who reportedly identified McKinney as the shooter was shown only one photo by police and not asked to choose the suspect from a "six-pack," explained Curbelo. The photo was not signed or initialed by the witness, as is the procedure, he said.

"I submit to you that it was because the police had already made up their minds," Curbelo said.

McKinney faces charges of murder and attempted murder, including special allegations for the use of a handgun and for promotion of a street gang. At McKinney's first trial in February, a jury deadlocked on the charges against him.

The shooting, say prosecutors, was a gang retaliation hit for the death of Edward Griffin, who was fatally shot inside a car at the intersection of Ninth Street and Medical Center Drive, in San Bernardino, in February 2007. Coincidently, Griffin's death was also payback for another shooting, authorities say.

McKinney was arrested in March 2008 in Monroe, La., during a drug sales investigation, according to an arrest affidavit in Ouachita Parish. He reportedly told authorities there his name was Montae Taylor, and he was arrested with a .357-caliber pistol and two bags of marijuana in his jacket pocket.

mike.cruz@inlandnewspapers.com

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MANHUNT

SAN BERNARDINO - As a citywide manhunt continued Friday for a child killer, Mayor Pat Morris said police will be getting help from the outside.

Police identified 15-year-old James Lamont Bagsby as their suspect in the shooting death of 11-year-old Anthony Michael Ramirez.

As Anthony and some friends played basketball at Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School on Wednesday night, two teenage boys approached and asked whether they were "gangbangers," police said.

When they said they weren't, one of the boys pulled a gun and started shooting. Anthony, shot in the back, was taken to Arrowhead Regional Medical Center in Colton, where he died at 9:08 p.m.

His brother, Joseph Ramirez, was shot in the hand and survived. Police suspect Bagsby of being a gang member, but none of the boys playing basketball have gang ties, police said.

Bagsby is described as a 5-foot-5 black teen with black hair and brown eyes. He has "James Jr," tattooed on his right arm and the names "Carolyn," "Tiana" and "Jaclyssa" tattooed on his chest, said Lt. Ernie Lemos of the San Bernardino Police Department. Another boy who was with Bagsby at the time of the shooting has not been identified.

According to witnesses and police dispatch logs, the shooter and the boy he was with fled west across a track field after the shooting and out a hole in the perimeter fence.

A warrant was issued for Bagsby's arrest Friday after the District Attorney's Office filed one count of murder, one count of attempted murder and nine counts of assault with a deadly weapon against him.

Lemos said Bagsby was identified as the suspect after extensive interviewing of witnesses by Police Department homicide detectives and San Bernardino City Unified School District officers.

Bagsby might still be in the city.

"Typically, when you're 15 years old you usually don't have a lot of resources, so we suspect he's still in the area," Lemos said.

Police continued on Friday to heavily patrol the neighborhood where Anthony was slain and where 14-year-old Jarred Mitchell was killed a month earlier, on May 22, as he danced in a driveway with friends on West Home Avenue.

Residents and witnesses say ongoing tensions between rival gangs 18th Street and Magnolia Estates are likely the primary factors that have fueled the recent deadly shootings in the neighborhood, but police have not confirmed if that's the case.

City Attorney James F. Penman, meanwhile, said his office was working to develop a truce among some of the city's gangs, although he wouldn't provide details about which gangs or how a truce might be reached.

Anthony's death was another sign of the ongoing high violence that has sent officials scrambling anew for solutions for a city whose crime problem makes it among the most-dangerous cities in the country.

The situation is so dire that one member of the City Council said he wouldn't mind seeing officers supported by the kind of security personnel that the military dispatches to war zones.

"Perhaps the National Guard troops that are moving (to the U.S.- Mexico border) can spend two weeks in our city," said 5th Ward Councilman Chas Kelley. "I'll put a welcome mat out for the National Guard to patrol our streets. We've got a crisis. It's an emergency."

Morris said earlier this week he would be articulating new anti- crime strategies for the city next week.

The mayor launched his Operation Phoenix plan to clean up a 20- block area northeast of downtown June 10 but said more was needed to lower crime citywide.

Friday, he stressed that the ideas he intends to spell out next week will not be a departure from the Operation Phoenix program, but rather a broad program to implement crime suppression, intervention and prevention strategies throughout San Bernardino. Morris said law-enforcement personnel from outside agencies would help patrol the city soon.

He said a California Highway Patrol helicopter would provide air support over the weekend.

The City Council recently approved a contract to give the Police Department a helicopter for the first time in its history for a 90- day period, but Morris and Police Chief Michael Billdt said there were still some details to be worked out before the chopper is ready to take flight.

Billdt recently redeployed his officers so that roughly 25 additional officers are working the city streets from 4 p.m. until 2 a.m.

Billdt said these hours are when San Bernardino sees 67 percent of its violent crime.

But Anthony's killing seems to make clear that police presence alone won't do it.

Police had already been heavily patrolling the neighborhood where Anthony was killed as well as Delmann Heights, California Gardens, and Little Zion all of which have a high density of gang members, said Lt. Diane Holmes, commander of the Police Department's Western District.

"I can tell you that the neighborhood is being thoroughly saturated," Holmes said Friday, adding that heavy patrols will continue indefinitely until violent crime drops in her area of command.

Just before Wednesday night's shooting, Holmes said her officers arrested three people and seized an AR-15 assault rifle. Holmes declined to say how many officers will be patrolling in the neighborhood or what the plan of action is, saying it could tip off the very people her officers are trying to keep off the street and from committing crimes.

"They count cop cars. They've got Nextel phones, and they communicate," Holmes said.

She said she and her sergeant had driven by King Middle School several times within the course of the evening Wednesday.

"But the playground is not visible from the street, and even if it were, all you would see were boys playing basketball," Holmes said.

She said she agrees with local pastors Ray Turner and Reginald Beamon that the real solution to violent crime in the community has to start with the community.

The crux of the problem, she said, is reversing a culture where youths feel that the only way to protect themselves is by joining a street gang.

"It's really a complex issue," said Holmes. "We have to change a culture where a kid wants to be a gang member, and how do you do that."

Anyone with information as to Bagsby's whereabouts is asked to call Detective Mike Vasilis at (909) 384-5636 or the police hot line at (909) 384-5656.

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Horror on Home Avenue


SAN BERNARDINO - Children and adults sprinted for cover, shrieking as some ducked in the grass, only to watch as a shooter trained his weapon from high to low, trying to pick off prone bodies.

The flurry of shots flashing from the silver sedan seemed indiscriminate.

In the end, it was 14-year-old Jarred Mitchell who fell, slain in the barrage. Three others were also hit in the rapid-fire drive- by attack on the normally peaceful West Home Avenue neighborhood around 8:30 p.m. Monday.

"It was, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop," said Jamese Reynolds, 18, who lives in the neighborhood. "If it wasn't an automatic gun, it was another shooter."

And in this case, another young life lost in a city struggling to make its streets safer.

The death of 11-year-old Mynisha Crenshaw in November kicked off an increased focus on fighting crime that has galvanized the community.

After Mynisha was shot to death, apparently by gang members, the community rallied for a new war on crime. Residents and community leaders, including The Sun, founded Mynisha's Circle to help effect change. Since then, Mayor Pat Morris has launched his anti-crime plan, Operation Phoenix, and Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., has introduced Mynisha's Law, which would send federal money to communities with gang problems.

San Bernardino police Sgt. Mike Desrochers said investigators are certain the Monday shooting is gang-related but could not confirm reports that a homegrown San Bernardino group known as the 18th Street Gang had a hand in the shooting.

"We can't state who (the gang) is because we don't know," he said. "We do have a person of interest, and that person is an 18th Street Gang member."

This gang is not part of the better-known Los Angeles-based gang that moved into Colton. This gang is smaller with black members.

Morris said the shooting is a blow to the city.

"It's a terrible tragedy for the family and for this city," he said, adding that the homicide was an example of the kind of violence that naturally stems from having "handguns on the streets in the hands of young people who are angry."

Councilman Rikke Van Johnson, whose 6th Ward includes the area where the shooting happened, said it was not the most violent area.

"Unfortunately, you have a proliferation of gangs in a very small vicinity, and that bleeds into the safe neighborhoods," he said.

Shattered peace

As night fell on the 1700 block of West Home Avenue on Monday, there was no indication of the impending violence.

A group of kids gathered in a friend's driveway, dancing to beats in their heads, busting moves to entertain each other as twilight fell.

"We always be dancing out here, having fun," said Maria, a 13- year-old girl who was cooking porkchops Monday night and watching her 8-year-old sister, Jessica.

Outside, the youngsters' routine evening took its initial downturn when someone noticed a silver sedan making several passes up and down the street.

At the same time, Reynolds approached the house where her 9-year- old sister played with a friend. The two live down the street.

A boy outside also noticed the sedan and pointed it out to Reynolds.

"I said, 'Come on, now, nobody's worried about you,' " she said.

A second later, gunshots shattered the night. Reynolds bent down and ran for the house, a one-story white stucco. Someone yelled at her to get down and jumped on her, forcing her to the ground. She felt blood trickle down her chin from scraping it as she fell.

"I didn't think the shooter was going to stop," Reynolds said. "They started shooting at people on the ground. You could see shooting from up high and the bullets moved down."

Eventually, the bullets stopped flying, and the car disappeared.

Reynolds stood and continued toward the door. Children emerged from the house, and she ordered them back inside and into a back room.

Someone asked if she had been hit.

"I looked down and saw my leg was bleeding," Reynolds said, pointing to a wound on her left thigh now covered with gauze and a light-brown athletic bandage wrap.

Her pants were torn. She pushed around the wound to see if a bullet had lodged in her flesh. But she realized it had only grazed her. She looked outside and saw police officers had already arrived.

She saw the 14-year-old boy lying on the ground, bleeding his life away. Paramedics attended to him. Also hit were two boys, ages 16 and 17. Their injuries were not believed to be life-threatening

Reynolds came upon her teenage cousin. Something looked different.

And then she realized it: A bullet had blown one of her cousin's braids off her head. But the girl was fine otherwise.

Eight-year-old Jessica was home with her sister Maria, watching a cheerleading movie when the shots rang out. The girls ran outside.

"It was three people on the ground, shot," Maria said. "People was running from down the street, towards the boy who was in the street, my play brother. We yelled at Jessica to go back inside. She don't need to see all that."

Several people gathered around Jarred. Someone shouted, "C'mon Jarred, make it, make it!"

Maria could see gunshot wounds to his head, arm and back.

"Somewhere in the back of his neck, there was a lot of blood," she said.

Jarred wobbled his head back and forth. His arm shifted as friends implored him to hold on.

"He dozed off in the street, and they tried to bring him back," Maria said. "But he died when they was taking him to the hospital."

The West Home Avenue neighborhood quickly pulled together for Jarred's family.

Down the road a bit on Medical Center Drive and Union Street, the sidewalk and parking lot outside the Westside Food and Liquor corner market on Tuesday was crowded with 70 to 100 of Jarred's friends and neighbors holding a car wash to raise money for the family.

Girls yelled "Car wash!" as others wiped down cars in the small parking lot.

Many wore photographs of Jarred around their necks.

At-risk neighborhood

Residents of West Home Avenue say their neighborhood is no haven for mayhem. It is not a high-density, impoverished apartment complex or a gang stronghold areas that are more typically the sites of such crimes.

A roughly even mix of black and Latino residents live in the one- story single-family homes lining the street.

Their street has been a quiet, friendly enclave for decades, they say.

Police have a different view.

The neighborhood is included in one of the at-risk areas identified by Police Chief Michael Billdt earlier this year, where police patrol is stepped up due to the threat of crime.

Lt. Diane Holmes, the district commander for the area where the shooting occurred, met with officers Monday night and put together a plan for directed patrols in the neighborhood, said Lt. Mark Garcia.

In the last month, there have been two nonfatal shootings in the nearby area, but police do not believe those shootings are connected to Monday's.

The shooting is believed to be gang-related, but a motive behind the shooting and who the intended target or targets were was unclear, Garcia said.

"It's still early in the investigation. Hopefully we'll be able to put a lot of it together," Garcia said.

Lingering questions

Maria sat Tuesday afternoon in a narrow band of shade next to the driveway where the shooting happened. Jessica sat next to her. Maria looked down at the pavement between her slippered feet.

"It was gangbanging," she said. "The person who pulled that trigger don't like nobody over here."

Jessica glanced at plastic letters police had used to mark the spots where gunfire had scarred the walls of the home's exterior. The letters ran through the alphabet to the letter 'R.'

"Are you going to fix the ABCs?" she asked a visitor. "Are the police going to fix the bullet holes?"

A woman who said her 18-year-old daughter was caught in the crossfire but survived without injury said she is fed up with the bad image gangbangers bring to the neighborhood.

"I'm born and raised here on the Westside 44 years, and these here are the Magnolia Estates," she said. "If the kids want to come out and dance, why these little dudes want to come and kill someone?

"That 14-year-old was one of my baby's friends. I know how that boy's mom is right now. Feel me?"

Staff writers Selicia Kennedy-Ross, Robert Rogers, Kelly Rayburn, Megan Blaney and Andrew Silva contributed to this report.

San Bernardino homicides

Four of 25 homicide victims in San Bernardino this year have been juveniles. The following is a running log of homicide victims, in reverse chronological order.

May 23: James Seay, 36

May 22: Jarred Mitchell, 14. Shot outside a home in the 1700 block of West Home Avenue, west of Medical Center Drive. The shooting is believed to be gang-related and possibly tied to local 18th Street gang.

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SAN BERNARDINO Man arrested after bullets hit cars

Gunmen driving by in a car fired on several people standing in front of homes in the Delmann Heights area on Wednesday, riddling houses and cars with bullets but not hitting any people.

The shooting happened about 4:20 p.m. at 26th and Gardena streets. Witnessess told police that several people in a Honda came driving north on Gardena and opened fire on a group of people standing near the intersection.

The intended victims also ran for weapons, firing back with rifles and hitting the Honda several times, police officials said. The people in the Honda jumped out of the vehicle and ran, leaving the Honda to drift toward a fence, officials said.

Investigators found several spent rifle and AK-47 rounds sprinkled throughout the scene. Some 9-mm rounds were found inside the Honda. A search of the area turned up one rifle and one suspect who was taken into custody but not identified, officials said.

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San Bernardino shooting probe yields new 'road map' to use in future cases



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11:15 PM PDT on Friday, April 18, 2008

By PAUL LAROCCO
The Press-Enterprise

SAN BERNARDINO - Thirty-six bullet casings, some from a submachine assault pistol, were scattered on the street where 14-year-old Jarred Mitchell was slain.

The May 2006 fusillade on San Bernardino's Westside startled detectives. It triggered a two-year investigation that, through its scope and sophistication, is gaining a different kind of attention.

Without neighborhood cooperation, police used wiretaps, rap music from a cell phone and the corner of a car visible in a photograph to link Keith Slaughter Jr. to a string of crimes, including Jarred's killing.

When Slaughter, 20, was convicted Monday of 18 felonies, 13 for the drive-by shooting that killed Jarred, a crowd of police and prosecutors came to watch.

Those involved in the investigation said they hope it sets a new standard.

"There's a lot we can learn from it," said San Bernardino police Detective Travis Walker. "This was the most complex investigation I've ever done, and it'll make future investigations easier because we have a road map now."

Domino Effect

Tips had implicated Slaughter in four San Bernardino homicides and a Redlands shooting. Evidence gathered since his February 2007 arrest led to the charging of four other members of his family's gang in connection with additional attacks and witness intimidation.

"That should be held as a higher victory than the one case alone," said Cal State San Bernardino criminal justice professor Stephen Tibbetts, who co-wrote "American Youth Gangs at the Millennium."

"It's a systematic, multipronged approach that attacks what makes the whole gang stronger," Tibbetts said.

When Walker was assigned to a Department of Justice task force in late 2006, Slaughter and Edward Griffin, 18, were believed to be the Westside gang's most active members. Witnesses to Jarred's killing identified them that night, but corroboration proved difficult.

Neither had been charged by Feb. 9, 2007, when Griffin was fatally shot while driving. Police said he had a loaded .380 caliber handgun under his seat.

Within days, Walker was contacted by the victim of a Jan. 24, 2007, Westside shooting. The midmorning drive-by had shattered the man's leg, and he initially had said he could not identify the shooters.

Walker testified during Slaughter's trial that the man identified Griffin as the shooter and picked Slaughter's photograph out of a lineup as resembling the driver.

The Big Break

On Feb. 20, 2007, Slaughter was arrested as he left Griffin's memorial party. A cell phone was seized and his apartment searched. The detectives found photographs of Slaughter flashing gang signs and profanity-laced rap music describing killings similar to Jarred's.

"That was by far the biggest break we could get," Walker said.

In May 2007, Slaughter was charged with 20 felonies. His family accused police of a setup.

"My son is a dancer, he's a father and he ain't no menace," Julie Slaughter said last year. "It's all a fabrication and they're going to stop at no cost."

She said her son was targeted because his uncle beat a 2004 murder charge. The case was dismissed the day trial was to start; a witness disappeared.

Walker, meanwhile, obtained a wiretap to investigate witness intimidation. He also confirmed that a portion of a silver car seen in a photo with Slaughter was the same model used in Jarred's shooting.

Slaughter said he was at Loma Linda University Medical Center that night, watching his girlfriend give birth. Walker contacted maternity ward nurses, who testified he wasn't there when Jarred was killed.

"He did a lot of out-of-the-box thinking," said Deputy District Attorney Lisa Rogan, who prosecuted the case. "He cut off everything they were going to put forward before they even thought of doing it."

Denials and Relief

The wiretap led to witness dissuasion charges against Keith Slaughter Sr. and Julie Slaughter. Police recorded jail calls between Slaughter and his girlfriend in which he cursed her and threatened to have his family beat her.

The angry voice contrasted starkly with the man in court who calmly called attorneys "ma'am" and "sir" and told jurors he flashed gang signs to "mimic his folks."

Jurors deliberated two days before finding him guilty on 18 of 20 felonies. Slaughter faces multiple life prison terms at sentencing May 12.

His family declined comment. His attorney, James Gass, said he would appeal.

The verdict was a relief to Kenya Johnson, whose brother, Adelaja "Adé" Russ, was killed in an October 2005 drive-by shooting for which Slaughter was named a person of interest but not charged.

"If he never gets convicted for Adé's (killing), I still have the peace of mind knowing part of my brother had something to do with the stuff he did get caught for," Johnson said.

Police say their work has had an effect. Thirty fewer violent crimes were reported in the Western District in the first two months of 2008, compared to the same period in 2007.

"People can draw their own conclusions," said San Bernardino police Lt. Scott Paterson. "He was involved in so many crimes ... that it's really difficult to quantify."

Learning Experience

Walker said the investigation could be a learning experience for the department, an example of ways to counter uncooperative witnesses in gang cases.

During the trial, Walker was called everything from crooked to The Wizard of Oz by the defense. He said he was more concerned about the witnesses.

Fourteen young people, including Jarred, were listening to music and dancing when gunmen in a silver Chrysler opened fire. Many of them testified, unwilling to make eye contact with Slaughter.

"This case wasn't about me," Walker said. "It was about all those children whose lives have forever been altered by Mr. Slaughter. And to be honest, that's who I work for."

Reach Paul LaRocco at 909-806-3064 or plarocco@PE.com or visit the San Bernardino Homicide Watch blog at http://www.beloblog.com/Pe_Blogs/sbhomicidewatch

HIT HARD

Since a suspected Westside gang member was killed in February 2007, San Bernardino police have arrested several alleged cohorts in other attacks

Edward Griffin: Shot to death Feb. 9, 2007. Suspected in multiple fatal shootings.

Maurice Hill: Arrested leaving Griffin's funeral Feb. 20, 2007. A gun recovered was tied to a 2006 shooting Hill is now charged with.

Keith Slaughter Jr.: Arrested Feb. 20, 2007, leaving a party for Griffin. Convicted this month of killing Jarred Mitchell, 14, in May 2006.

Keith Slaughter Sr.: Arrested May 17, 2007, charged with dissuading witnesses in his son's trial. Alleged founding member of the gang.

Todd Tibbs: Arrested Sept. 7, 2007, later charged with fatally shooting Charles Marshall in August 2007 in the Dorjils housing project.

Robert McKinney: Arrested March 5, 2008, in Louisiana. Charged with killing Jarrett Ojomoh in April 2007 near Dorjils.

Source: San Bernardino County Superior Court records

RELATED

[gautier]

Catching Up
By Paul LaRocco on April 6, 2009 8:45 AM
No reported homicides in San Bernardino County this weekend, though Rialto police booked a man into jail on suspicion of murder following a fatal traffic collision that may have involved alcohol.

That said, I wanted to catch up on a court case I had briefly mentioned a few weeks back.

Todd Tibbs
Todd Tibbs and Brandon Burns were on trial for murder in the August 2007 fatal shooting of Charles Lawrence Marshall in San Bernardino.

Prosecutors allege that the two defendants fatally shot Marshall in front of his apartment in the city's Little Zion Manor, possibly over a drug-related dispute involving one of Marshall's relatives.

The jury last week deadlocked on the murder charge, and the judge declared a mistrial, court records show.

Tibbs and Burns were immediately scheduled for retrial.

Tibbs, however, was convicted of attempted murder related to a different shooting that took place a week later, records show.

The verdict marks the second time in recent months that authorities could not get a murder conviction against a suspected 18th Street gang member on the first try.

Robert McKinney's trial in the April 2007 drive-by shooting of Jarrett Ojomoh on West 19th Street also ended in a mistrial. He is awaiting his second trial.

Back with more later.

[MENACE18]

are you foos sure those ppl are from 18st cuz in the I.E. hom18s beef with sureno hoods but ive never heard of any vlood hood in the I.E.

[MENACE18]

never mind, those foos aint from 18st, they got their own shit, just like 18th and morgan in chicago, not the original 18st gang

[gautier]

they dont have no connection to the latino 18th street gang they are a black gang on the west side of san bernardino and 18 street is there main street in the middle of there hood the are a black rag gang.

[MENACE18]

they dont have no connection to the latino 18th street gang they are a black gang on the west side of san bernardino and 18 street is there main street in the middle of there hood the are a black rag gang.

this is what makes ppl confuse my hood with other hoods

[xxramenno0dlezxx]

san bernardino has gotten crazy as hell tho in the last decade

[H572DSTA]

san bernardino has gotten crazy as hell tho in the last decade

the funny thing is that people used 2 move over there 2 san bernadino moreno valley palmdale lancaster ect because they wanted 2 escape the madness of south central and the gangs came with them lol

[thaswiper]

san bernardino has gotten crazy as hell tho in the last decade

the funny thing is that people used 2 move over there 2 san bernadino moreno valley palmdale lancaster ect because they wanted 2 escape the madness of south central and the gangs came with them lol

NIGGAS TOOK ALL THAT GANGBANGING OUT THERE WITH THEM. IT AIN'T HARD FOR A NIGGA FROM L.A TO MOVE SOMEWHERE WITH NO GANGS AND GET SHIT TURNT UP

[RuthlessCray]

san bernardino has gotten crazy as hell tho in the last decade

the funny thing is that people used 2 move over there 2 san bernadino moreno valley palmdale lancaster ect because they wanted 2 escape the madness of south central and the gangs came with them lol

San Bernardino didn't get crazy within the last decade, its been crazy long before this decade, and was even worse 20 years ago. Its had gangs for along time too. I can't say the same for Palmdale, Moreno Valley etc..Just speaking for San Bernardino.

[xxramenno0dlezxx]

yeah but ever since the watts riots in '92, SB and riverside county has been a #1 growin spot for black/hispanic gangs

[illcoka]

yeah but ever since the watts riots in '92, SB and riverside county has been a #1 growin spot for black/hispanic gangs

SB and Riverside counties both had a strong gang presence black and latino before the watts riots.

[YUNGBOSS323]

it geTs TuRNT uP OUt thEre

[Ty Ty]

MANHUNT

SAN BERNARDINO - As a citywide manhunt continued Friday for a child killer, Mayor Pat Morris said police will be getting help from the outside.

Police identified 15-year-old James Lamont Bagsby as their suspect in the shooting death of 11-year-old Anthony Michael Ramirez.

James Bagsby isn't from the Maze, so why was this article listed in this thread?

[CHOCOLATEBOI]

we all big bloods out here