A man was charged after he allegedly tried to kidnap a 15-year-old girl walking home from school in Torrance, prosecutors announced Friday.

Jhony Adalberto Granados-Lopez, 28, of Los Angeles, is charged with attempted kidnapping and possession of child pornography, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office said in a news release.

Granados-Lopez tried to force the teen into his vehicle at knifepoint near Spencer Street and Hawthorne Boulevard on May 22, prosecutors allege. The girl managed to escape and get help.

Prosecutors did not provide further information on the child pornography charge.

The suspect pleaded not guilty Friday and is scheduled to appear in court on June 14. Bail was set at $150,000.

If convicted, he faces a possible maximum sentence of more than five years in prison.

A 20-year-old man and 17-year-old were arrested and charged after allegedly shooting another teen to death, mistakenly believing he was a rival gang member, authorities said Tuesday.

The charges come more than three months after David Amaro-Poblano, an honor student at Environmental Charter High School in Lawndale, collapsed in his mother’s arms before being pronounced dead at a hospital.

The 17-year-old victim was struck by gunfire as he walked towards a home in the 1500 block of 146th Street, where his mother was delivering birthday party invitations the evening of Feb. 22, according to witnesses and police.

Marcos Medina and a 17-year-old suspect were arrested May 30 after a series of search warrants were served in the city of Los Angeles, according to Gardena police. The identity of the teen suspect is not being released since he is underage.

Medina was charged with one count of murder with two special allegations of using a handgun and criminal street gang activity and one count of felon in possession of a firearm, according to Ricardo Santiago, a spokesman for the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office.

Police said the underage suspect was also charged with homicide.

Detectives believe the pair thought Amaro-Poblano was a rival gang member and targeted him by mistake. Gardena Police Lt. Steve Prendergast described Amaro-Poblano as a “totally innocent person” with no gang ties.

Prendergast said tips from the public and other investigative leads led to the arrests but declined to give details about evidence linking the suspects to the shooting.

Several rounds were fired at Amaro-Poblano, striking him at least once near his heart, police have said. The victim returned to his vehicle wounded, where his girlfriend was waiting and his mother soon found him.

He died of a gunshot wound through the chest, according to county coroner’s officials.

In the days following, authorities searched for suspects and a light-colored sedan believed to have fled the scene, offering a $15,000 reward for information in the case. Meanwhile, loved ones grieved the death of Amaro-Poblano.

The high school senior was on the school’s varsity soccer team and had been accepted into multiple universities, friends and family said. He had plans to attend Cal State Dominguez Hills this coming fall.

One of Amaro-Poblano’s teachers, Tiffany McGinnis, praised him at a news conference held by police days after his death. She described him as a “truly good person” who “didn’t deserve to have his life taken from himself at a such a young age or from his family.”

A GoFundMe page to raise money for the teen’s funeral expenses was set up at the time.

A man was sentenced Tuesday to 21 years in state prison for the shooting death of a man whose house party he was at in Pomona, prosecutors said.

A jury found 21-year-old Timothy James Molano McKinney of Rancho Cucamonga guilty last month of one count of voluntary manslaughter in the June 16, 2017, killing, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office said in a news release.

The jury also found true the special allegation that the defendant used a firearm himself in the crime.

That night of the shooting, McKinney went to a gathering at the home of 33-year-old Joseph Aguilar, on the 500 block of East McKinley Avenue, according to court testimony.

Police said they responded around 11:45 p.m. to a family party that was interrupted when a fight broke out.

The brawl was between Aguilar and McKinney’s friends, and it spilled outside when McKinney pulled out a handgun and shot Aguilar, according to the DA’s office.

Officers who responded to the scene found Aguilar on the ground at the front of the home with a gunshot wound in his upper body, investigators said.

The victim was taken to a nearby hospital, where he was pronounced dead shortly after arriving, police said.

McKinney was arrested two days later, officials said.

A former business manager to Stan Lee pleaded not guilty to elder abuse charges that allege he stole from the late Marvel Comics legend and held him against his will.

Keya Morgan, 43, entered the plea in Los Angeles after authorities transported him from Arizona, where he was arrested last month.

Morgan was charged in May with five counts of elder abuse involving the late Marvel Comics mastermind including theft, embezzlement, forgery or fraud against an elder adult, and false imprisonment of an elder adult.

The charges date to June 2018, when Morgan was working closely with Lee. The comics legend, who co-created Spider-Man, the Incredible Hulk and Black Panther, died in November at age 95.

Alex Kessel, an attorney for Morgan, has said his client has never abused or taken advantage of Lee.

Los Angeles County prosecutors say Morgan sought to capitalize on Lee’s wealth and exert influence over him even though he had no authority to act on his behalf.

Filmmaker Keya Morgan arrives at the premiere of “Total Recall” at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre in Hollywood on Aug. 1, 2012. (Credit: Frazer Harrison / Getty Images)

Prosecutors say Morgan pocketed more than $262,000 from autograph-signing sessions Lee did in May 2018.

Morgan at one point also took Lee from his Hollywood Hills home to a Beverly Hills condominium “where Morgan had more control over Lee,” according to California authorities.

Lee’s daughter, Joan, said in a request for a restraining order last year that Morgan was manipulating the mentally declining Lee, preventing him from seeing family and friends, and trying to take control of his money and business affairs. A restraining order was granted last June that barred Morgan from contact with Lee and revealed a police elder abuse investigation.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Francis Bennett set a hearing for Thursday morning to determine the source of money offered to secure Morgan’s release. His bail is set at $300,000. Kessel said Morgan’s mother would be providing the bail money.

Lee was the public face of Marvel Comics and beloved for his appearances at comic book conventions and his cameos in Marvel movies, including a posthumous one in April’s “Avengers: Endgame.”

A Los Angeles judge ruled Wednesday that grand jury transcripts in a murder case over the killing of rapper Nipsey Hussle will remain sealed, for now.

Superior Court Judge Robert J. Perry ordered that the documents, which would give the first glimpse of the prosecution’s evidence against defendant Eric Ronald Holder, will remain under wraps for at least three more weeks while Holder’s lawyer expands her argument that they should be kept secret in the interest of a fair trial.

Perry rejected a motion from the Los Angeles Times, which moved for the transcripts’ immediate release, saying the law here favors the public’s right to know.

The grand jury returned an indictment May 9 charging Holder with the murder, attempted murder, and other felonies. He has pleaded not guilty. Transcripts of the proceedings, under California law, would have become public May 31, and The Associated Press and other media outlets sought copies.

But Holder’s lawyer Lowynn Young filed a motion to keep them under seal until after trial, arguing that their release could unfairly prejudice the public against Holder and taint potential jurors.

Young, a public defender who took over Holder’s case when high-profile attorney Christopher Darden stepped down, said she has yet to have access to most of the evidence, and that the documents’ release would give the public as much knowledge as the defense has. Holder, who is jailed as he awaits trial, sat with his lawyer at the hearing.

LA Times attorney Rochelle L. Wilcox said there was no way the pool of potential jurors in LA County would be tainted by the information.

White doves fly near a car with an illuminated picture of slain rapper Nipsey Hussle before the arrival of the funeral procession carrying his body to the Angelus Funeral Home in South Los Angeles on April 11, 2019. (Credit: David McNew / Getty Images)

“I can’t imagine that the publicity is likely to be so pervasive that it would not be possible to find 12 unbiased jurors,” Wilcox said.

She argued that the defense would have to meet a high standard of precedent to keep the documents under wraps.

“I’m not persuaded by that,” the judge said, adding that three weeks of “breathing room” for all involved was perfectly acceptable.

He asked the defense for a more detailed motion before another hearing June 27.

The judge also raised the possibility that the unsealing could jeopardize public safety.

“I understand it was a near-riotous situation the day of the shooting,” said Perry, referring to a spontaneous memorial that temporarily turned into a stampede when gunshots were heard, leaving nearly 20 people injured.

Wilcox argued that the circumstances are nowhere near that volatile.

Hussle, 33, was shot and killed outside his clothing store on March 31. Two other men were shot and injured. Holder was arrested after a two-day manhunt.

The prosecution, which has not revealed why it used a secret grand jury instead of a public preliminary hearing, supports at least a partial release of the transcripts, and doesn’t believe it would bias a jury.

“There have to be at least hundreds of thousands of people in Los Angeles who haven’t heard of Nipsey Hussle,” Deputy District Attorney John McKinney said.

A transient received a sentence of 32 years to life in prison for a series of sexual attacks on four women in L.A.’s Westside area back in 2016, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office announced Thursday.

Pablo Carlos Pineda is shown in a booking photo released by Santa Monica police on July 20, 2016.

The sentencing comes less than a month after Pablo Carlos Pineda, 35, pleaded no contest to the following charges: two counts of assault with intent to commit a sex crime, and one count each of kidnapping to commit a sex crime and second-degree robbery, according to prosecutors.

The incidents all took place between January and July 2016.

Pineda sexually attacked two women in the Santa Monica area, first on Jan. 13 and the second on Feb. 5, according to a DA’s news release.

Both of those assaults occurred on the beach, the Santa Monica Police Department said at the time.

Then, on April 15, he violently attacked a third woman in Beverly Hills, beating the victim with a brick and leaving her badly injured, authorities said.

The fourth and final incident took place in West L.A. on July 2, when Pineda kidnapped a woman before sexually assaulting her, according to the release.

“He threw her on the ground and got on top of her. This was a violent sexual assault,” LAPD Capt. Tina Nieto said at the time. “The victim tried to fight back, but the suspect punched her numerous times to quiet her, and then went on to sexually assault her.”

Pineda was arrested on July 19 in McArthur Park by Santa Monica police. The case was investigated by three local law enforcement agencies as well as the FBI.

Charges have been filed against a Downey man accused of selling more than two dozen sick puppies, many of whom died after being taken home by families across Southern California, officials said Thursday.

Gustavo Gonzalez, 26, was charged with a total of 52 counts, including 28 felony counts of animal cruelty, and one felony count apiece of first-degree residential burglary and grand theft, according to a news release from the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office. He also faces 22 misdemeanor counts of petty theft.

Gonzalez is accused of selling 28 puppies to 25 families between February 2018 and April 2019. The dogs became "very ill" after being taken home, and most of them died, according to prosecutors.

The charges against him resulted from an investigation by the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, a statement from the nonprofit animal welfare organization said.

In addition to SPCALA and the DA's office, Downey police and the county's Department of Consumer and Business Affairs are also investigating the case.

Gonzalez is scheduled to be arraigned on Monday, the release stated. His bail has been set at $740,000.

He could be sentenced to up to 36 years if convicted as charged.

Prosecutors encouraged potential victims to call the Department of Consumer and Business Affairs at 800-593-8222.

A Hesperia man was sentenced to 26 years to life in prison for fatally stabbing his girlfriend in the neck nearly four years earlier, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office announced Friday.

Timothy Aguilar Andrade, 32, was found guilty last month of first-degree murder with an allegation of using a knife, according to prosecutors.

He killed Brandi Carrasco, 35, in the home they were sharing in the 1900 block of Richard Street in Burbank on Aug. 23, 2015, authorities said. He stabbed her in the neck while they were inside a bedroom.

Laceration wounds were also discovered on Carrasco’s upper torso, police said at the time, but she died from the wound to her neck, according to coroner’s officials.

She was dead when police arrived.

Andrade was arrested after he “provided significant information” proving he acted alone in the slaying, according to police. Another man who had been taken into custody in the killing was released upon Adrade’s arrest.

A gynecologist who worked nearly 30 years at UCLA's student health clinic, until retiring last year amid a misconduct investigation, is accused of sexually abusing patients, the university announced Monday.

James Heaps, 62, is charged with two counts of sexual battery by fraud and one count of sexual exploitation by a physician with two patients, according to Ricardo Santaigo, a public information officer with the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office.

Court records show the case was filed for warrant May 22 with a violation dated June 27, 2017.

Heaps pleaded not guilty at his arraignment Monday and was released without bail, the Associated Press reported.

The doctor surrendered to law enforcement Monday to face charges related his medical practice and encounters with two patients at UCLA Health in 2017 and 2018, UCLA said in a news release.

Although the school said Heaps turned himself in, Los Angeles police said he was not in their custody.

The college began investigating sexual misconduct allegations brought against Heaps last year and subsequently removed him from practice. The university said it terminated his employment, at which point Heaps announced his retirement.

The campus also said it reported Heaps' conduct to the Medical Board of California and law enforcement. As of Monday afternoon, the state Medical Board's database still showed Heaps' license as active with no notable disciplinary actions.

The gynecologist had worked part-time at UCLA student health from 1983 to 2010 before being hired full-time at UCLA Health in 2014. He also held medical staff privileges at the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center from 1988 to 2018, officials said.

"Sexual abuse in any form is unacceptable and represents an inexcusable breach of the physician-patient relationship," Chancellor Gene Block and Vice Chancellor John Mazziotta said in a statement. "We are deeply sorry that a former UCLA physician violated our policies and standards, our trust and the trust of his patients."

Heaps was also under investigation for improper billing practices, the school said.

In 2016, Heaps was among the 30 highest-paid employees across the entire UC system, taking home $1.18 million. He made nearly as much — $1.045 million — in 2017, the most recent year for which data is available.

The news follows similar allegations that came to light last year against longtime USC campus gynecologist George Tyndall. A Los Angeles Times investigation found that USC had for years ignored troubling reports of inappropriate conduct involving Tyndall, then eventually allowed him to resign with a financial payout — and without reporting the claims to his patients or the Medical Board of California.

A former men's health doctor at USC has also been sued by at least 50 patients for alleged inappropriate conduct and sexual contact.

UCLA said it launched an independent investigation in March into the campus' response to sexual misconduct in clinical settings, and whether the preventative measures it has in place are good enough.

The university is also partnering with Praesidium to provide support to any current or former students who may have been affected. Those with complaints or concerns about Heaps can contact Praesidium at 888-961-9273.

Clarification: This story has been updated to clarify that Heaps was hired full-time at UCLA Health after working part-time at the school's student health clinic.

A court granted preliminary approval to a $215 million settlement for a federal class action lawsuit over alleged sexual abuse by a former gynecologist at the University of Southern California.

Because of the court's preliminary approval, the university can give official notice to George Tyndall's former patients, according to the USC's interim president Wanda M. Austin.

A USC lawyer told CNN last year that as many as 17,000 women could qualify for the class action settlement.

Those who qualify include women who saw Tyndall, had their breasts or genitals examined by him and women who he photographed or video-taped nude or partially nude. The compensation will be broken into three tiers ranging from $2,500 to $250,000, with more money awarded to those who submit written forms and complete interviews about their suffering.

"This settlement will provide relief to those who were affected by this difficult experience," Austin said in a statement. "It is an important milestone for those former patients seeking certain resolution without reliving their painful experiences."

Tyndall was a gynecologist at the university's student health center for almost thirty years. He was fired by USC in 2017 after complaints of sexual misconduct and racist language.

Those accusations included groping patients, penetrating them digitally, taking photographs of their bodies and exposing himself. Tyndall denies any wrongdoing.

University officials said the school reached a settlement with Tyndall but did not report him to law enforcement or state medical authorities.

The settlement also requires USC to strengthen their oversight, including background checks for all personnel who interact with patients and giving female students the option to see a female doctor, according to the filing.

A task force will be formed to make policy change recommendations at USC, an independent women's health advocate will be appointed to supervise the investigation of complaints and training for students to prevent inappropriate sexual behavior, according to the filing.

The university said in a statement that they have already begun reforms, female physicians have been hired and new protocols have been implemented to ensure investigation of complaints.

The Los Angeles County District Attorney's office says it "has received a total of 99 crime reports" about Tyndall from the Los Angeles Police Department, but he has not been charged with any crime.

This class-action settlement is separate from other lawsuits that have been filed in the state of California and Los Angeles County against Tyndall and the university. Those remain outstanding.

A man has died a month after he was forced into the street and struck by a passing vehicle while being robbed in Long Beach, investigators said Friday.

Three men and a woman are facing robbery and murder charges in connection with the May 6 assault, which occurred around 2:45 p.m. on the sidewalk along the 1900 block of Pacific Avenue, Long Beach police said in a news release.

Officers who responded to the scene found the victim lying unconscious in the road. He was hospitalized in critical condition, but succumbed to his injuries June 3.

He’s being identified only as a 50-year-old Long Beach resident, pending the notification to next of kin, police said.

Investigators have not said what, if anything, was stolen from the man.

The driver who hit him remained at the scene and is cooperating in the investigation, officials said.

The group of robbers fled, but detectives identified four suspects the day after the crash.

On Thursday, two Downey residents, 27-year-old Michael Rowe and 23-year-old Kalaza Easterlin, were arrested near their home. A search warrant was served at the residence and evidence related to the robbery was uncovered, police said.

In Long Beach, detectives arrested two local men: 53-year-old Ira Callahan and Darrell Cutrer, 32. Inmate records show Callahan was booked the day after the crash, and Cutrer on May 20.

The four are each facing one count of murder and at least one count of robbery, according to police.

Rowe and Cutrer are both charged with a second count of robbery and one count of assault by means of force likely to produce great bodily injury, while Rowe is facing an additional count of battery with serious injury, officials said.

Cutrer is scheduled to appear in court June 17, while the remaining defendants are set to appear July 11, booking records show.

All four are being held on bail, with Callahan’s set at $3.01 million, Rowe’s at $2.075 million, Cutrer’s at $2.05 million and Easterlin’s at $2 million.

A man accused of killing another man whose body was found in Carson in April  has been charged with kidnapping and murder, officials announced Tuesday as the search for the suspect's ex-wife, who's also wanted in the case, and her missing teenage daughter continues.

Roman Cerratos, a 39-year-old resident of Mopua, Hawaii, was also charged with one count of possession of a firearm by a felon, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office. He faces special allegations that he personally used a handgun and a knife in the crime, prosecutors said.

Jeffrey Appel, 32, of Las Vegas, was found with gunshot wounds to his neck and torso inside his car on Carson Plaza Drive near Del Amo Boulevard the morning of April 16.

Cerratos allegedly kidnapped, stabbed and shot Appel.

Authorities named Cerratos as a suspect in the killing, along with his ex-wife, 40-year-old Maricela Mercado, who was last seen with her 15-year-old daughter in Torrance on April 17. The next day, California Highway Patrol issued an Amber Alert for the teen, Alora Benitez.

San Diego police reported finding a BMW named in the Amber Alert in the border town of San Ysidro on April 19.

About two months later, on June 13, Cerratos was arrested in Mexico, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department. He was extradited to the U.S. and placed in county custody on June 14.

Investigators have not disclosed any details about a possible motive in the killing. Officials also did not provide information about his criminal history, but county inmate records indicate he was arrested on

Cerratos could face life in state prison if convicted as charged, the District Attorney's Office said.

A 20-year-old man pleaded no contest to sexually assaulting two women in Bellflower and a 14-year-old Lakewood High student last year, with two of the incidents only hours apart, officials said Tuesday.

Joshua Dwight Cooper of Bellflower entered the plea Monday and was immediately sentenced to 29 years and four months in state prison, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office said in a news release.

The defendant was also ordered to register as a sex offender for the remainder of his life.

Cooper was convicted on one count each of assault with intent to commit rape, assault with intent to commit rape on a person under 18 with a great bodily injury allegation, forcible oral copulation and forcible sodomy.

He also pleaded no contest to burglary of an occupied residence in a separate case, prosecutors said.

The first assault Cooper was accused of occurred in August 2018, when he allegedly attacked a 42-year-old woman on a walking path behind the Bellflower courthouse.

Later that month, on Aug. 31, Cooper sexually assaulted another woman walking in Bellflower, this time a 29-year-old in the 9200 block of Palm Street, the DA’s office said. He also allegedly took that victim’s cellphone.

Less than two hours later, he attacked a teenage girl who was using the restroom at Lakewood High School. Cooper fled when a campus employee came into the room, investigators said.

A month before the first sex assault, Cooper broke into an apartment in Santa Fe Springs but fled when the victim confronted him, according to prosecutors.

A man was sentenced to 50 years to life in prison in connection with the 2016 fatal shooting of an up-and-coming rapper at a Granada Hills pool party, officials said.

Los Angeles Police Department officials remain at the scene of a shooting in Granada Hills that left one dead and two others injured on Aug. 21, 2016. (Credit: KTLA)

Kenny Birdine, aka “Lil’ Rampage,” was convicted of first-degree murder on Oct. 31, 2018, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office. The jury also found true that Birdine, 22, used a handgun in the shooting of 30-year-old Justin Lishey, aka Kid Cali, and he did it in association with a criminal street gang, the Inglewood Family Bloods.

Birdine shot Lishey, multiple times at close range on Aug. 20, 2016. Prosecutors said the suspect even shot at the victim as he fell to the ground during the party at a mansion. Birdine believed the victim was a member of the Rollin’ 90s, but Lishey was not a documented gang member, and he “did nothing to provoke the murder,” officials said.

Kid Cali is shown in a photo he posted to Instagram on Aug. 19, 2016, a day before he was fatally shot.

The victim was taken to a hospital where he later died. Two other men were shot during the party, but their injuries were not life-threatening.

Lishey had promoted the event at the multimillion-dollar home  on social media, and more than 100 people showed up, Los Angeles Police Department officials said at the time.

The artist had been signed to Jaccpot Records, the record label owned by NFL wide receiver Desean Jackson.

Conrad Mainwaring is seen in an undated photo released June 20, 2019, by the Los Angeles Police Department.

A private coach who has worked with UCLA track athletes was charged Thursday with sexually assaulting one of his trainees, prosecutors said.

Conrad Avondale Mainwaring, 67, of Los Angeles, pleaded not guilty to one count of sexual battery under the guise of providing physical therapy, the L.A. County District Attorney’s Office said in a news release.

The charge stems from an incident involving a then 20-year-old victim on June 26, 2016, the DA’s office said.

An ongoing investigation by ESPN’s Outside the Lines has identified 31 men who say they were sexually abused by Mainwaring.

The allegations span some 44 years, with the youngest accuser being 14 when they say they were assaulted.

The men told ESPN Mainwaring used his status as a onetime Olympian, ties to prominent athletes and knowledge of psychology and physiology to convince them to train with him. The training allegedly included what Mainwaring called a mental focus component in which he instructed them to control and manipulate erections and testosterone levels to improve their athletic performance.

ESPN says one of its journalists spurred the victim Mainwaring was charged with battering to contact police, and when the man did LAPD told him Mainwaring was already under investigation based on tips from out of state.

LAPD detective Sharlene Johnson told the outlet that Mainwaring was “using his position as a coach with athletes who are so focused and driven to be perfect at their craft that he was able to victimize them without them even realizing it.”

Mainwaring completed in the hurdles at the 1976 Olympics, representing the Caribbean nation of Antigua and Barbuda, but did not medal.

Most recently, Mainwaring worked as a private coach at various tracks around West L.A., according to L.A. police.

Prosecutors filed the sexual battery case for a warrant on Tuesday, and the coach was arrested Wednesday.

Mainwaring was being held on $100,000 bail and scheduled to return to court July 10, officials said.

If convicted as charged, he could face up to four years in state prison.

Anyone with information on potential additional victims in the case can contact Detective Johnson at 213-486-6910, or call 877-527-3247 after normal business hours. Anonymous tips may be submitted via 800-222-8477 or www.lacrimestoppers.org.

A Bellflower man faces more than a quarter-century in prison after a jury convicted him Thursday of stabbing another man to death with a kitchen knife during an argument last year, authorities said.

Jeffrey Ardonal Johnson, 62, is expected to be sentenced to 26 years to life in state prison when he returns to Los Angeles County Superior Court for sentencing on Aug. 26, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office said in a written statement.

The Norwalk jury found Johnson guilty of first degree murder, and also found true the special allegation that he personally used a knife in the Jan. 27, 2018, killing of 24-year-old Anthony Maurice Elston of Bellflower.

Johnson’s son had children with Elston’s sister, who were in the process of moving into the same apartment complex as Johnson in the 9900 block of Ramona Street, according to prosecutors and Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department officials.

A fight erupted between Johnson’s son and Elston’s sister in the parking garage of the apartment complex, investigators said.

“During that fight, Johnson approached Elston, who was unarmed, and fatally stabbed him once in the abdomen,” according to the District Attorney’s Office statement. “The defendant then left the parking garage, went to his residence, washed the blood off the knife and left the scene.”

Johnson returned to the scene about two hours later and turned himself in to deputies, officials said.

Elston was taken to a hospital, where he succumbed to his injuries the following day, Deputy Grace Medrano of the Sheriff’s Information Bureau said at the time.

A 21-year-old man was sentenced Thursday to life in prison without the possibility of parole for stabbing two men to death at separate house parties in South Los Angeles and Pacoima during fall 2016, prosecutors said.

A jury found Jesse Alexander Cardoza of Arleta guilty earlier this year of murder in the deaths of 18-year-old Martin Kennedy and Victor Garcia, 22, the L.A. County District Attorney’s Office said in a news release.

The first killing occurred Sept. 24 after a house party on Stanford Avenue in the Green Meadows neighborhood of South L.A.

Once the revelry wound down, Cardoza and a minor confronted and attacked Kennedy. The victim died after Cardoza stabbed him on the back of the head and in the back, officials said.

The next month, on Oct. 29, Cardoza allegedly killed Garcia at a party advertised by flyer on Bernadette Street in Pacoima.

As the gathering was closing down around 2:20 a.m., Garcia was trying to disperse partygoers and diffuse tension when Cardoza plunged a knife into his neck unprovoked, according to prosecutors.

At the time, a news release from L.A. police stated Garcia’s attackers sparked a confronation after they “became so intoxicated and belligerent that the homeowner asked them to leave the party.”

Garcia, an El Monte resident, later died at the hospital.

Within a few hours of Garcia’s killing, Cardoza allegedly smashed a champagne bottle on a victim at another party. That case was prosecuted separately, the DA’s office said.

Cardoza had fled the Pacoima party in a vehicle, but jail records show he was arrested Nov. 29 by an LAPD fugitive apprehension task force.

Two co-defendants in the case — 20-year-old Brandon Corona of North Hills and Angel Andres Quezada, 20, of L.A. — had been facing murder charges that were later dismissed, according to court records.

Both men pleaded no contest to one count of assault with a deadly weapon last October.

Corona was subsequently sentenced to six years in prison, while Quezada received an eight-year prison term.

A judge on Friday sentenced an MS-13 gang member to life in prison without the possibility of parole, plus an additional 25 years, for the 2001 kidnapping, rape and murder of a 13-year-old Whittier girl, authorities said.

A jury convicted Jorge Palacios, 41, in March of first-degree murder and kidnapping to commit another crime, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office said in a written statement. Jurors also found true the special allegations of murder during the commission of a rape, lewd acts on a child and kidnapping.

Three other men are awaiting trial for their alleged roles in the killing of Jacqueline Piazza, whose body was discovered in Elysian Park on June 28, 2001. A previous trial ended with a hung jury.

The victim’s body was nude when discovered and she had been shot twice in the head, prosectors said.

The brutal killing remained unsolved for more than a decade before investigators from the Los Angeles Police Department’s Robbery-Homicide Division, working in conjunction with detectives from the Gang and Narcotics Division, received new information in the case. An indictment against the four suspects was unsealed in June of 2012.

“During the trial, prosecutors said the defendants kidnapped the victim the night before she was found and drove her to a remote area of (a) park, where they sexually assaulted and killed her,” according to the D.A’s. office statement.

Co-defendants Rogelio Contreras, 41; Melvin Sandoval, 40; and Santos Grimaldi, 36, are scheduled to appear in Los Angeles County Superior Court on Aug. 23 for a pretrial conference in their case.

A Sherman Oaks man was sentenced to 29 years to life in prison in connection with fatally stabbing his wife in front of their son in 2017, officials announced Friday.

Aurelio Teran is shown in a photo released by the LAPD on Aug. 27, 2017.

On April 10, Aurelio Terán, 40, was convicted of first-degree murder, injuring a spouse and making criminal threats, as well as two counts of trying to dissuade a witness from testifying, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office. The jury also found true that Terán used a knife in the crime.

Terán assaulted and threatened his wife, Viridiana Terán, 32, on Aug. 26, 2017. The next day, he returned to the family’s apartment and stabbed her in front of their 12-year-old son, according to evidence presented during the trial.

Neighbors called 911 after the boy ran outside and yelled for help, officials said at the time.

Responding Los Angeles police officers found the victim in a bedroom with multiple stab wounds to her upper body. She was taken to a hospital, where she eventually died.

Terán then fled to Ventura County where he was apprehended after being hit by a car.

The man charged Monday with stealing a gilded statue of Marilyn Monroe from atop a public art piece on Hollywood Boulevard was convicted last year of smashing President Trump’s Walk of Fame star with a pickax.

Austin Mikel Clay, 25, of Glendale, is facing one felony count each of grand theft of property valued at more than $950 and vandalism causing over $400 in damage following the heist caught on video June 16 at the Hollywood and La Brea Gateway, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office said in a news release.

The sculpture, colloquially known as the Four Ladies of Hollywood gazebo, uses stainless steel statues of actresses Mae West, Anna May Wong, Dolores Del Rio and Dorothy Dandridge that form the base of a structure two stories tall. At the top was Monroe in her best-known pose, standing above a gusting subway grate in the 1955 film “The Seven Year Itch.”

Clay is accused of scaling the artwork shortly after 11 p.m. and sawing off Monroe’s likeness. Surveillance video captured a man climbing down from the gazebo, grabbing a backpack and walking away.

The man was then joined by another man, and the two were seen walking east on Hollywood Boulevard with a woman trailing behind. The group ended up at the The Hollywood Roosevelt hotel, where they met up with a third man in the lobby, video shows.

A man identified as Austin Mikel Clay is seen in a surveillance image captured after the theft of a Marilyn Monroe statue in Hollywood on June 16, 2019, and released by the Los Angeles Police Department.

LAPD Detective Douglas Oldfield, who is investigating the statue theft, confirmed Clay is the same man who pleaded no contest to vandalizing Trump’s star last year.

In that case, Clay was sentenced to three years’ probation, one day in county jail and 20 days of community labor. He was also ordered to attend psychological counseling and pay more than $9,400 to the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, which oversees the Walk of Fame.

Clay turned himself in to Beverly Hills police the same day the star was smashed into a pile of powdery rubble. That was the third time the landmark was vandalized, after being pummeled with a sledgehammer and spray-painted with a swastika.

It’s unclear what led investigators to identify Clay as a suspect in the Monroe case, but detectives previously said they were analyzing fingerprints collected from the gazebo.

Clay was arrested at his home last Friday, June 21, police said.

Inmate records showed he remained in custody Monday. Prosecutors said they are asking his bail be set at $45,000.

Clay is scheduled to be arraigned Tuesday.

If convicted as charged, he could face up to three years in county jail.