A 61-year-old man who prosecutors have admitted to killing Bishop David G. O’Connell was charged Wednesday with murder in the shooting death of the much-vaunted religious leader.

Carlos Medina, a handyman whose wife worked as a housekeeper for the bishop, also faces a specific allegation of using a firearm during the crime, Los Angeles County Dist. atty George Gascón announced this at a press conference on Wednesday. If convicted, he faces 35 years in prison.

In detailing the charges, Gascón said Medina admitted to the murder to investigators.

“I know this was a shock to our community,” Gascón said. “This was a brutal act of violence against a person who gave his life to make our neighborhoods safer and healthier and has always served with love.”

Medina is accused of killing the 69-year-old priest on Saturday at his home in Hacienda Heights, where he lived alone.

“His loss is one that I really believe will be felt for years to come,” Gascón said. “The charges brought against Mr. Medina will never undo the enormous damage caused by this callous act.”

O’Connell was found dead in his bedroom on Saturday with multiple gunshot wounds, Gascón said.

In an interview, Gascón said O’Connell was probably asleep when the shooting took place.

“In every way Bishop O’Connell was a saint for Los Angeles,” he said.

Law enforcement sources familiar with the investigation said the firearm was a small-caliber weapon and that O’Connell’s wounds were not clearly visible to the deacon, who first discovered the bishop’s body.

According to the sources, the bishop was shot five times.

Neighbors said they didn’t hear any gunshots or unusual noises from the house until deputies and paramedics arrived in the quiet neighborhood just before 1pm on Saturday.

Medina was taken into custody at his home in Torrance on Monday after barricading himself for some time. Inside, investigators recovered two firearms, including a .38 caliber handgun that detectives suspect killed O’Connell, according to sources familiar with the investigation.

Investigators were led there two days after the killing, aided by a tipster who told officers that Medina had been acting strangely since the murder, Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna said Monday after announcing the arrest had.

Surveillance video also showed a “dark, compact SUV” — believed to be owned by Medina — at O’Connell’s home around the same time the murder took place, Luna said.

Medina appeared briefly in court Wednesday afternoon, where Judge Armenui Amy Ashvanian posted bail of $2.3 million.

A Spanish language interpreter transferred the court case to Medina, but he did not speak during the brief court appearance.

His indictment was set for March 22.

Officials have yet to disclose what may have motivated the killing. After announcing Medina’s arrest, Luna, the tipster who referred law enforcement to the suspect, said Medina claimed the bishop owed him money related to his work as a handyman.

Sheriff’s Lt. Michael Modica said that when questioned by Medina, he gave multiple reasons for the murder, but “none of them made sense to investigators.”

“We don’t think there’s any value in owing money,” he said, referring to the tipster’s suggested motive.

Los Angeles County public defender Ricardo Garcia said in a statement to The Times that Medina “is presumed innocent and is entitled to a vigorous defense.”

“We are sensitive to the impact this case has had on our community, but at the same time caution against making any hasty judgments, whether by the public or the media, until all facts are settled in court,” the statement said .

Deputy Public Defender Pedro Cortes, who has been hired to represent Medina in court, did not respond to a request for comment.

Medina has a long history of arrests and convictions for personal drug use from 2005 to 2017, and detectives are investigating whether he was using narcotics at the time of the murder, law enforcement sources say.

Medina was arrested on narcotics charges in 2005, 2007, 2011 and 2017, according to police officers who are not authorized to discuss his criminal record. At least two of the convictions were for drug possession, but Handyman had no history of violent arrest.

In the unincorporated Torrance neighborhood, where Medina and his wife rent a two-bedroom yellow stucco house, neighbors said the couple lived quiet, ordinary lives and had been kind to their neighbors.

“He never said anything offensive,” said Francisco Medina Lopez, 74, a neighbor who said he was friends with Medina. “It’s so weird.”

Medina, who had a limp, was often seen tinkering with his cars or working in his yard, neighbors said. His wife was a neighborhood fixture, often spotted walking a large white dog that residents said belonged to the bishop.

The two neighbors occasionally drank beer or ate together, chatted, and listened to ranchera music.

Although Medina’s wife worked for the bishop, Medina Lopez said the couple did not appear particularly religious and did not mention it in conversations or decorate their home with Catholic objects and images.

But Medina Lopez said he always thinks well of his neighbor, who sometimes drives him to the swap meet or to nearby shops.

“He was your average older man, always talkative and in a good mood,” said Luis Lopez, who lived in a house behind the Medina’s house. “He was just a normal man.”

After news of the bishop’s death broke, about a dozen people stood with candles and prayed the rosary on Saturday near police cordon tape near his home.

O’Connell, who received the title of bishop in 2015, is a “peacemaker with a heart for the poor and immigrants,” Archbishop Jose H. Gómez of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles said in a statement Sunday.

“He had a passion for building a community in which the sanctity and dignity of every human life was honored and protected,” Gómez said in the statement. “He was also a good friend and I will miss him dearly. I know we all will.”

Born in County Cork, Ireland, O’Connell studied for the priesthood at All Hallows College, Dublin and was ordained in 1979, according to the Archdiocese.

He has been an associate pastor in several Los Angeles parishes, including 14 years at St. Frances X. Cabrini in South Los Angeles. He then became pastor of Ascension, where he oversaw a church of about 4,000 families and two schools with about 500 students.

In the neighborhoods he served, he was known as a reassuring mediator, particularly after the 1992 riots. The Catholic News Agency reported at the time that O’Connell, not yet a bishop, was working to strengthen trust between police and the South community – restore LA.

He also served as founder and chair of the interdiocesan SoCal Immigration Task Force, which assisted children who entered the United States without adult companions.

“He was the help of the helpless and the hope of the hopeless,” Los Angeles Borough Superintendent Janice Hahn said Monday during an emotional news conference.

Gómez fought back tears and his voice broke Monday as he called O’Connell “a good friend from Los Angeles.” He remembered the bishop’s fluent Spanish with an Irish accent.

“Every day he wanted to show compassion to the poor, the homeless, the immigrants and all those who live on the margins of society,” Gómez said. “He was a good priest and a good bishop and a man of peace.”

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Assisting her at the clinic was a discreet team of nurses and a utility man named Joe Hoff — a former bellboy Inez had befriended at the Palace Hotel. Hoff also assisted Inez in scaring off mobsters who sporadically attempted to extort her. Inez’s business was widely considered to be the worst-kept secret in San Francisco, but making weekly payoffs to SFPD officers and politicians kept her doors open. Inez also kept a list of trustworthy physicians on call who could assist her with procedures that resulted in complications.

Inez’s services came at a price. Officially, abortions performed by her within the first eight weeks of pregnancy cost $50 (about $880 in today’s money). After that, services went up to $80 (about $1400 now). Despite this, many patients found Inez willing to perform procedures for whatever amount of money they had on hand. For truly dire cases, she charged nothing at all. In one case, she handed a patient with six children in an envelope of money and advised her to leave her husband.

Still, Inez was making more money than she knew what to do with. With most procedures taking just 15-20 minutes, she quickly amassed a fortune. She built a home at 274 Guerrero St. — an address that delighted Inez because 274 happened to be the California penal code that outlawed abortion. Inez also purchased properties around the city (including one on Waller Street that doubled as a recovery center) and in La Honda and San Mateo County. She used five different aliases to do so.

The Guerrero Street home that Inez Burns kept until 1973. (Rae Alexandra)

Inez enjoyed living lavishly, with a lively social life and fierce shopping habit. She bought a limo and hired a driver, doted on her two Pomeranians and kept regular appointments with astrologers. She underwent three plastic surgery operations: one to remove two ribs, another to remove the bones in her pinky toes and finally a facelift in her later years. Still, Inez had so much cash, she took to sewing money into drapes, burying it in lockboxes and hiding it in secret panels around her properties.

As Inez’s business grew, so did complications in her love life. She married William Brown in 1915, after having a son (also named William) with him. After Brown died in 1921, Inez married Charlie Granelli, with whom she had a daughter, Alice. In 1927, while Granelli was out of the country on business, Inez fell in love with an assemblyman named Joe Burns. By then, because Inez was already an infamous figure in the city, the love triangle made for salacious headlines. Inez was granted a divorce from Granelli in May 1928 and went on to marry Burns in 1932. The couple stayed together for the rest of their lives, though the relationship was frequently an open one in which fiery disagreements were not uncommon.

I

nez’s legal troubles started in 1936, when her financial situation finally came under scrutiny by the authorities. Still, she proved to be a slippery woman to pin down. She had so many informants scattered around the city, she got tipped off and was able to clear her properties before every raid. On one occasion, Inez was so indignant when police arrived that she kicked an inspector in the shins. Efforts to hold her legally accountable after one successful 1938 raid were thought by the fact that former patients steadfastly refused to assist investigators.

In October 1939, Inez was finally indicted for tax evasion by a grand jury, for the years 1935 and 1936. She pleaded guilty and was fined $10,000, plus an undisclosed additional sum to settle the case. At the time, Judge Harold Louderback noted: “Never in my history on the federal bench has so little information been given the court. For some reason, there seems to be a great reluctance to tell what Mrs. Burns’ business was.” (Her business cards described her only as a “Designer.”)

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Five inmates escaped from St. Francois County Detention Center in Farmington, Missouri, on Tuesday night, authorities said in a statement posted to Facebook.

The suspects, identified as Kelly McSean, Dakota Pace, Aaron Sebastian, LuJuan Tucker and Michael Wilkins, gained access to the jail’s rooftop through the vents and pipes of the building’s plumbing system. They subsequently made their way to the ground, St. Francois County Sheriff’s Department Chief Deputy Gregory Armstrong said.

The inmates discarded their orange jumpsuits and were seen on camera wearing white thermal leggings, white boxers and/or basketball shorts and white T-shirts — with the exception of Tucker, who was wearing a black shirt, the sheriff’s department said.

St. Francois County Detention Center in Farmington, Mo. (Google maps)

Surveillance footage also captured the inmates stealing a dark gray 2009 Toyota Scion with Missouri temporary tags and no front plate from the Centene Corporation’s parking lot at approximately 7 pm

The group was last seen on camera driving southbound, according to the sheriff’s department officials.

All of the inmates were being held on felony warrants and three of the inmates — Tucker, Sebastian and McSean — are known sex offenders, authorities said.

Authorities said that if members of the public spot the fugitives, they should not approach and they should call 9-1-1.

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San Francisco authorities are calling on the public to help identify a woman who allegedly fed wild coyotes around the city, an act that can cause the animals to lose their fear of humans.

San Francisco Animal Care & Control said in a statement Wednesday that it had received reports of feeding in multiple areas and shared a picture of a person the agency identified as “a particularly outrageous coyote feeder.”

The picture was taken with a camera on Bernal Hill and shows a woman with a platter of meat sitting on the floor while she feeds a coyote.

“The same person is reportedly feeding coyotes elsewhere in the city,” the agency said. “If anyone can identify this person, please call Animal Care & Control at 415-554-9400.”

San Francisco Animal Care & Control is calling on the public for help in identifying a woman who allegedly fed a coyote on Bernal Hill in San Francisco. The picture was taken by a camera on the hill.

SF Animal Care & ControlSF Animal Care & Control

Coyotes are often spotted in San Francisco, where the animals shape the urban landscape, build caves and raise young in vegetation zones between the neighborhoods. Neighborhood groups next door are full of stories of coyotes killing cats, and Instagram is awash with pictures of coyotes strolling the streets of SF. Although the animals are nocturnal, photos often show them on the move in broad daylight.

Wild coyotes are naturally shy and shun people, but they can be comfortable around people if intentionally fed.

An aggressive coyote alerted several park visitors at Golden Gate Park last year, and authorities said there have been five reports of an animal attacking young children. According to an ongoing investigation, federal agencies captured and killed the animal.

Despite signs urging people not to feed coyotes, Animal Care & Control said that people were consistently and illegally feeding the coyotes so that they lost their natural fear of humans. The agency stated that feeding coyotes “creates dangerous situations when animals learn to approach people when they seek easy access”.

Feeding wildlife is illegal, and anyone caught in the act could face fines of up to $ 1,000 and / or jail time, the agency said.

“People need to stop feeding wild animals,” said Virginia Donohue, the agency’s executive director, in a statement. “If you continue to defy the law – and common sense – you will hurt a person and destroy an animal.”

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by: Tristi Rodriguez / KRON, Nexstar Media Wire

Posted: Mar 15, 2021 / 5:58 AM EDT
/. Updated: March 15, 2021 / 5:58 a.m. EDT

SAN FRANCISCO, California (KRON) – A second woman who was involved in an Uber attack in San Francisco turned into an agency on Sunday.

The 24-year-old Arna Kimiai is in custody after being handed over to the authorities, said the San Francisco Police Department.

Kimiai has been detained in San Francisco County Jail on a warrant for robbery, assault, conspiracy, and violation of health and safety law.

Woman arrested in San Francisco Uber attack arrested

Last week, Kimiai said she would be in touch after the 24-year-old Malaysia King, another suspect involved in the same incident, was arrested in Las Vegas.

Malaysia King (Photo: Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department)

On March 7, a 32-year-old Uber driver informed authorities that he had been attacked by two female suspects. He reported that he picked up three female passengers around 12:45 p.m.

A few minutes later, the driver stopped the car and finished driving when he noticed that one of the passengers was not wearing a face mask. The driver said he could only continue the journey if everyone was wearing a mask.

At that point the argument began – and everything was captured on video.

Caught on camera: Uber driver harassed over mask policy in San Francisco

This now viral video showed one of the passengers reaching over the driver and taking his phone. He was able to get his cell phone back later.

The three passengers got out of the car and one sprayed pepper spray in the car towards the driver.

The suspects fled the scene.

An investigation began and officials identified the two suspects as Kimiai and King.

King was arrested on charges of: corrosive chemical attack (244 PC), attack and battery, conspiracy and health and safety code violation.

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