Compton gang member suspected of strangling his Twin Towers jail cellmate

A Compton gang member already sentenced to life in prison for murder and awaiting trial in a second slaying is being investigated for allegedly strangling his Twin Towers jail cellmate.

Jamar Lavon Tucker, 28, was found Thursday morning inside a two-man cell next to the body of William Levell Hansbrough during a security check at the county jail in downtown Los Angeles, officials said.

Tucker allegedly told deputies that he had just killed his cellmate, said Steve Whitmore, a spokesman for the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department. A coroner’s autopsy determined Hansbrough’s death was homicide by strangulation.

Deputies found Hansbrough, 36, covered with a sheet inside the cell that is part of a gang module. Whitmore said sheriff’s homicide investigators expect to present a case to prosecutors in the near future. According to sheriff officials, Tucker and Hansbrough are part of the “same gang” and were listed as the “same security level” and had shared a cell for more than month before the slaying.

Hansbrough was slated to go to trial next month for felony gun possession and forgery, according to prosecutors.

Tucker was being held at the jail because he is slated to go on trial May 10 for the 2005 murder of Kevin Watts. Prosecutors are pursuing the death penalty against Tucker if he is convicted in that case, officials said.

Tucker was convicted two years ago of a murder and attempted murder along with three other men, court records show. During the trial for the April 2005 home invasion robbery and carjacking in Redlands, Tucker pleaded guilty to murder and attempted murder. Tucker received a life sentence.

When Redlands police arrested Tucker, they described him as a member of the L.A. gang the 107th Street Hoover Crips who goes by the name “Baby Hoover Ray.” Tucker, along with three other men, carjacked a car restoration expert and then forced him to drive them to his Redlands home.

Once there, the men fatally shot the carjacking victim’s 28-year-old cousin and wounded his 51-year-old mother. They then stole thousands of dollars in cash, according to police. As they drove back to L.A., Tucker shot the carjacking victim, according to authorities. The man faked he was dead and was dumped in Fullerton.

– Richard Winton

Sheriff says mental health cuts burden L.A. jails

May 25, 2010

Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca on Tuesday blasted cuts to mental health services in the Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s proposed budget, saying they would burden the county’s already overcrowded jails.

Baca estimated that the Sheriff’s Department currently has about 2,500 inmates with mental health problems in its jails, many of them in the Twin Towers facility in downtown Los Angeles. Critics have asserted that the number of mentally ill inmates is much higher, with many landing in Men’s Central Jail, a facility less equipped for mental health care.

Cutting funding to community mental health services would push the mentally ill out of clinics, onto the streets and, for many, eventually into the jails, Baca said.

“Los Angeles County jails are already the largest mental health provider in the country,” Baca said. “The timing of these cuts could not come at a worse time.”

– Robert Faturechi

Los Angeles DA Sends Former Mayoral Candidate to Jail without trial

LOS ANGELES, Calif., March 24 (SEND2PRESS NEWSWIRE) — Craig Rubin has never been accused of actually selling marijuana. In three hearings the only testimony from two LAPD police officers, Tracye Fields-Black and Cecil Mangrum, is that Rubin spoke to both officers about the Bible, the Ten Commandments and the testimony of Jesus Christ; and now he is going to jail for it and without a trial. This is a prime example that we are currently living in a police state. “Trutanich and Cooley, our local elected attorneys, are ignoring real crime, wasting tax payer’s money and aiding and abetting an ongoing criminal enterprise (LAPD Narcotics Division),” says Rubin former candidate for mayor of Los Angeles.

Rubin has been a licensed clergy member since graduating from UCLA with a history major that emphasized religious history. On October 22nd 2009 Rubin was arrested at his wife’s store, Tara’s Tee-shirts, now closed, when police entered without a warrant and pointed weapons at customers in the store, they seized money from Rubin’s wife’s store and claimed it as drug money, which allows them to keep it. Officers and Detectives then allegedly falsified police documents stating that a minor customer in Tara Rubin’s shop was actually in Mr. Rubin’s church that provided legal medical marijuana. In the first arrest Rubin alleges that the law enforcement officers who arrested didn’t report a $10,000 check Rubin had written them and they cashed the check prior to arresting and seizing back the money. These funds were never reported as seized.

Author and pastor Rubin believes the jailing is retaliation for his mayoral campaign. “This thing has appeared rigged since the beginning.” Rubin has been anti-prohibition for over 30 years having worked with Dennis Peron and Jack Herer. Rubin has videos showing, “The biggest pot dealer I know of in the world,” and with Rubin’s experience that is saying something, “associating with law enforcement going in-and-out of a private door belonging to legalzoom .com, across the street from Temple 420, all day.” Rubin has witnesses that place the well-known alleged drug dealer using the same private door to observe the arrest. Rubin further asserts, “Coincidentally Robert Shapiro, legalzoom.com spokesman, calls me the next morning to ‘help out’ when he is supposedly the Chairman of some anti-drug group — and the person he claims asked him to call me, none other than the CEO of legalzoom .com, himself a person I’ve never met.”

In 2006, when the first arrest took place Rubin and his wife had their life’s savings seized prior to being convicted of any crime, thus limiting their ability to hire an attorney, but coincidentally an attorney approached Rubin in Superior Court claiming to be working as a criminal defense attorney. She had “street cred,” being a pastor herself, and having represented Tupac Shakur in the past. Rubin retained her through trial, but after repeated written requests she was unable to provide a retainer agreement. Rubin was informed by a California attorney, claiming to supervise her, that his attorney was a full-time employee of the federal government moonlighting without permission from her job at the Veteran’s Administration.

“When you hear about something my office does that appears to be unjust,” Carmen Trutanich said at a recent Homeowner’s Association, “I want you trust that our office is doing the right things for the right reasons.” However, it appears clear that Trutanich has worked with LA DA Steve Cooley to close Rubin’s medical marijuana club, Temple 420, for all the wrong reasons.

In 2006, Rubin was convicted after being denied the ability to show the jury Officer Tracye Fields-Black’s membership agreement to the temple and was prevented from mentioning medical marijuana at trial. Rubin states, “My potential witnesses, who were members of Temple 420, were assigned lawyers by the court and each warned that they too could be charged with a conspiracy leading them to face up to 20 years in prison,” Rubin claims this was only one of the things that made the trial unfair because an M.D. he had lined up to testify backed out after allegedly being warned he could be charged. “The only officer to testify against me, Field-Black, committed perjury and without her testimony there wouldn’t have been a conviction.”

Rubin is harsh on local politicians and law enforcement, “Our city and county are sick. They have leukemia and the white blood cells that should be protecting us, are our elected attorneys, have turned on the citizens and are attacking law abiding people for their own political gains.”

At the January homeowners association meeting Trutanich said, “I haven’t gone after and shut down the medical marijuana clubs.” However, on October 22, 2009, prior to that untrue statement, Trutanich’s office had Rubin arrested. Trutanich also said, “Probably my kids have smoked it (marijuana). We know it is not the worst thing in the world. It is the criminal element that comes with it.” He went on to say, “I do law, not policy and selling medical marijuana is illegal.”

Officer Cecil Mangrum testified that Assistant City Attorney Asha Greenberg had Rubin arrested on a permit issue one day after Greenberg wrote a letter to Rubin from the City Attorney’s office saying that the City Attorney’s office wasn’t pursuing permit issues. Mangrum testified that in his career had made only 15 controlled buys of marijuana; all of them at medical marijuana clubs. With all those buys the only person ever arrested according to his sworn testimony is Pastor Rubin who says, “Cooley and Trutanich are trying to label me the ‘criminal element’ when I am pastor running a church that provides legal medical marijuana. My arrest was purely political. Cooley and Trutanich are thugs because everyone knows there are a few MMJ clubs run by, shall we say, less ethical people, yet they arrest me?”

Rubin words cut like a knife when it comes to holding public officials accountable for their actions. “I never broke the law. All it takes is one corrupt judge and a District Attorney with political ambition and they can send any innocent person in the city to jail.” Rubin is not happy about having to go to jail without being able to confront his accuser and without a trial. “I am a pastor who has never personally sold pot according the LAPD’s own testimony. My job is to teach pot smokers about the Bible and that is all I have done. Our justice system is corrupt and our government is sick. In this case it is Justice that needs to be investigated including the Judge Windham who seems to be in collusion with Trutanich and Cooley.”

Rubin is also in possession of letters written by the LAPD to Rubin’s landlord threatening to seize her property if she didn’t evict Rubin because they claimed the pastor was running an “illegal” marijuana dispensary. They claimed to be prosecuting a case against him, but the case was dropped because Rubin’s dispensary was 100% completely legal according to Judge Windham’s own words, so there was no case against Rubin the DA could pursue. Rubin is considering a case of slander against the LAPD for alleging his club was selling marijuana “illegally” when in fact it was not.

Rubin is asking people sympathetic to his cause to call Governor Schwarzenegger’s office to ask for some relief for Rubin in this case. (916) 445-2841 ext. 6. Rubin has to turn himself in on March 26, 2010 at 9:00 a.m. at the LAX Courthouse. “People keep joking,” Rubin says, “don’t pick up the soap, but the only one being screwed is the tax payers as the City of LA spent millions upon millions of local dollars to put me, a pastor, in jail for one gram of pot. I hope people are outraged at how Cooley and Trutanich are using the people’s money.”

The Game Checks into Jail

Rapper to serve 60 days.

By Gil Kaufman

The Game began his 60-day jail sentence on Sunday night at the Twin Towers Correctional Facility in Los Angeles, a label representative for the rapper confirmed Monday (March 3). The rapper (born Jayceon Taylor) pleaded no contest last month to a felony charge of possession of a firearm in a school zone.

The sentence stems from an altercation Game allegedly got into last February during a pick-up basketball game at the Rita Walters Educational Learning Complex in South L.A., with prosecutors alleging that Taylor punched an opposing player and then pulled a gun from his car and threatened to shoot the man. He was arrested on the charge in May of 2007 and, following the plea deal cut last month, was sentenced to 60 days in jail, 150 hours of community service and three years’ probation.

He had faced three counts of making criminal threats and possessing a firearm in a school zone, but two of the charges were dropped in the plea deal. According to reports, the rapper waited until just moments before midnight on March 3 — the deadline for him to check in to jail — to report to the facility.

In a recent interview with Monsta magazine, Game apparently proclaimed his innocence.

“The crazy part about this is that I’ve had guns before in my life,” Game told the mag. “But this time, I didn’t have a gun. And because one person said I had a gun and coaxed his homies into saying that I had a gun, I’m in a predicament where I’m asking, ‘Do I want to spend another million dollars to fight this trial, so who knows what jury’s gonna come in and say I’m guilty? Or do I want to save my money, go sit down for four months and accept this felony they’re trying to give me for no reason.’ ”

Phil Spector starts his 18-year jail sentence

On his arrival at the Twin Towers Correctional Facility in Los Angeles on Monday, Phil Spector was immediately subjected to a strip search before being issued with his prison clothes and being shown to a special section of the jail where the most high-profile prisoners are locked up. Previous occupants of the prison have included Paris Hilton in 2007 and Robert Downey Junior in 1998.

A mere 15-minute drive from his Alhambra suburb 30-bedroom mansion where he shot Clarkson in the mouth after a party, Phil Spector’s new home is the world’s biggest prison, housing 4,000 inmates in its 1.5m square feet. On Wednesday, the eccentric millionaire music producer woke up to face the second day of what is likely to be an 18-year sentence for the 2003 murder of actress Lana Clarkson.

The prison is closed for visits from Wednesdays to Fridays, so Spector’s girlfriend, the 28-year-old Playboy model Rachelle Short, will have to wait until Saturday before reacquainting herself with her beau. She can, however, pick up the wig and suit he wore to court from the Inmate Reception Center Monday to Friday: from now on, Spector will wear only high-visibility jumpsuits.

Spector, prison booking number 1873015, will remain at Twin Towers until May 29 when he will learn exactly how long his sentence will be and which of California’s prisons he is likely to be transferred to.

Former inmates of the prison, a den of violent rapists, mentally ill prisoners and hardened gangsters, have suggested that the diminutive Spector will need to keep his wits about him if he is to stay unharmed. “Better be strong,” a released inmate named ‘Steve’ told ABC News. “Better know how to fight… [being small] is a disadvantage if they got to fight, there’s a riot, they’re gonna get messed up.”

No cuts in store for Los Angeles County jails after all

Sheriff Lee Baca will not close a jail because of budget cuts after all. Although the sheriff had a few months ago threatened such a closure, the department has managed to find $25 million in additional savings and revenue, officials said today.

Early last summer, Baca said he might have to close part or all of the Men’s Central Jail, or the North facility jail, because of a growing public funding crisis.

“There will be no jail closures, and no portion of a jail will be closed,” said Steve Whitmore, the department’s spokesman. “There will no reductions in services in unincorporated areas and no reductions in detectives.”

Instead, the department will use unspent funds and new revenue streams to cover the gap. Whitmore said the department would get $10 million of additional state revenue for housing inmates awaiting transfer to prisons and use $7 million in funds left over from programs last fiscal year. It will also use $3 million in revenue from cities that contract with the department for law enforcement, $1 million in miscellaneous revenue, $2.5 million in cuts to specialty medical clinic services and $1.5 million in reductions to fixed assets.

Whitmore said the county has agreed that it doesn’t need to implement $22 million more in potential cuts.

– Richard Winton

Men’s Central Jail on Lockdown to Prevent Racial Brawl

The Men’s Central Jail has been on lockdown since Friday evening after the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department learned that inmates were plotting violence.

Sheriff’s officials said they placed the downtown jail — known for holding the most dangerous inmates — on lockdown after learning that some prisoners were planning racial violence.

Sheriff’s spokesman Steve Whitmore said the facility was locked down to visitors and inmate movement until this morning and that now those restrictions were being eased.

Violence between black and Latino inmates has been a problem at the jail.

Since it opened just east of downtown Los Angeles 44 years ago, Men’s Central Jail has been the scene of many of the jail system’s most disturbing incidents, including nine inmate homicides between 2000 and 2007. In 2004, an inmate roamed the jail unsupervised for hours before tracking down and killing an inmate who had testified against him.

Months after that killing, Merrick Bobb, the county’s special counsel, wrote a report that described the jail as “nightmarish to manage” and suggested the department close it.

– Richard Winton

Men’s Central Jail Police Accused of Pepper-Spraying Inmate’s Genital Area

Three Los Angeles Sheriff Department (LASD) deputies assigned to the Men’s Central Jail in downtown are suspended (or, paid leave, that is) as a criminal investigation is opened into accusations from an inmate saying that he was isolated by them, punched and pepper-sprayed in the anus and scrotum area. It all started when inmate Alejandro Franco, 23, who is there for “allegedly violating terms of his probation for a domestic violence conviction,” swore at a deputy when he requested a clean shirt and was refused.

About 45 minutes after the argument, three deputies removed him from his cell, handcuffed him and took him to a recreation area away from other inmates, Franco said.

One deputy jabbed him in the face, the inmate alleged. Another yanked his T-shirt and asked, “How’s this shirt?” Franco said.

Then the deputies ordered him to lie face-down on the pavement. Two held him there, pressing their knees into his back and neck. Then, he said, “my boxer shorts were pulled down and I was pepper-sprayed . . . . ” [LA Times]

“My testicles and area down there was burning really bad,” Franco told The Times in a phone interview. “If they had just punched me and yanked my shirt, this wouldn’t have been an issue. They took it an extra step. It was humiliating, degrading, embarrassing. . . . They should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”

And to that, the LASD is taking it “very seriously.”

Photo by o2ma via Flickr

L.A. County inmate charged with beating cellmate to death

L.A. County inmate charged with beating cellmate to death
The 21-year-old had been ordered transferred to a state facility for the mentally ill, but had not yet been moved. The victim was a transient, 55, being held on suspicion of vandalism.

By Richard Winton

September 10, 2009

A Los Angeles County jail inmate was charged with murder Wednesday in the beating death of his cellmate, authorities said.

Matthew Rochelle, 21, allegedly attacked Cedric Walton, 57, on Aug. 31 in the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department’s Twin Towers jail, which often houses inmates with mental health or medical issues, prosecutors said.

“It was a beating death. One inmate basically killing his cellmate with blunt-force trauma,” said sheriff’s homicide Lt. Liam Gallagher.

At the time of the assault, Rochelle was being held on charges of burglary and resisting arrest, authorities said. He was arrested last winter by Los Angeles police in South L.A., court and jail records show.

Rochelle’s burglary case had been delayed twice.

According to court records and sheriff’s officials, Rochelle was due to be sent to Patton State Hospital, a facility for the mentally ill in San Bernardino County. “It is unclear why he had not been moved,” Gallagher said.

The slaying occurred about 11:30 a.m. Aug. 31 in a two-person cell inside an area where inmates are observed for mental health issues, sheriff’s officials said. Deputies are required to check the cells on the ward every 15 minutes. Walton’s body was found by a staff doctor nine minutes after the cell was checked by a deputy, authorities said.

“All the checks were made on the inmates. Everything was done appropriately in this case,” said Steve Whitmore, the sheriff’s spokesman.

Since 2000, at least 15 people have been killed in L.A. County jails.

Michael Gennaco, head of the county’s Office of Independent Review, said his office and the Sheriff’s Department were reviewing the circumstances of Walton’s death, including whether the inmates were appropriately housed and classified.

“The victim was much older than his cellmate,” Gennaco said. According to officials, Walton was a transient being held on suspicion of vandalism.

Walton’s killing came two days after two inmates at the Men’s Central Jail killed themselves, authorities said. One man hung himself with a pair of socks and another housed in a medical area hung himself from a shower rod with a piece of clothing, Gennaco said.

20 LA County Inmates Infected With Swine Flu

Jul 22, 2009 10:52 pm US/Pacific
20 LA County Inmates Infected With Swine Flu
LOS ANGELES (AP) ―

Authorities say 20 inmates in the Los Angeles County Jail system have contracted the swine flu.

Sheriff’s spokesman Steve Whitmore said Wednesday that the first confirmed case was reported about two weeks ago at the downtown Men’s Central Jail.

He said most of the infected inmates are housed at the Pitchess Detention Center in Castaic. At that facility, about 190 inmates were placed in two quarantine housing areas, where they will be tested and monitored over a seven-day period.

Two inmates were taken to outside hospitals for treatment.

About 20,000 inmates are in the county jail system.

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