Santa Ana's top news & views blog

Santa Ana's top news & views blog

Category Archives: Crime

The SAPD will conduct a DUI and driver’s license checkpoint on March 23

Posted on by Posted in Alcohol, Crime, Santa Ana, SAPD Leave a comment

Santa Ana Police Department

Advisory: SAPD conducting a DUI /Driver’s License checkpoint Friday March 23rd, 2018, 9:30PM to 2:30AM, 2100 Block South Raitt Street

The Santa Ana Police Department will be conducting a DUI / Driver’s License checkpoint on Friday March 23rd, 2018. It will begin at 9:30 PM and is scheduled to conclude at 2:30 AM. It will be conducted in the area of 2100 S Raitt Street, in the City of Santa Ana.

The primary purpose of a DUI Checkpoint is to deter impaired driving, not to increase arrests. All too often, members of our community are senselessly injured or killed on local roadways by impaired drivers. This DUI / Driver’s License checkpoint is an effort to reduce those tragedies, as well as ensuring drivers have a valid driver’s license. The DMV reports that unlicensed drivers are 4.9 times more likely to cause a fatal crash than a licensed driver. Continue reading→

A woman was arrested today for a hit and run involving a bicyclist in Costa Mesa

Posted on by Posted in Bicycles, Costa Mesa, Crime Leave a comment

The victim of a Costa Mesa hit and run accident

Costa Mesa Police Department

Advisory: Update: CMPD has arrested the suspect in the hit-and-run that occurred earlier today

The Costa Mesa Police Department (CMPD) has arrested Pratiti Renee Mehta, 33, Costa Mesa, the suspect in the hit-and-run that left a cyclist injured this morning.

Costa Mesa police officers, along with the Costa Mesa Fire & Rescue, were dispatched to Bristol Street and Red Hill Avenue  on March 20, 2018, at approximately 8:20 a.m., in response to a hit-and-run that left a cyclist on the roadway. The caller, who reported the incident, was with the 56-year-old male victim on the roadway when first responders arrived. Continue reading→

A snitch helped to convict a Santa Ana gangbanger of killing a teenager

Posted on by Posted in Crime, Gangs, OCDA, Santa Ana, SAPD Leave a comment

Jesus Canales, a 24-year-old man who gunned down a teenage rival gang member in Santa Ana and then fled to Mexico, where he was on the lam for five years, was convicted Tuesday of first-degree murder, according to the O.C. Register.

Canales was charged on July 25, 2011, with one felony count of special circumstances first degree murder committed for a criminal street gang purpose and one felony count of street terrorism, with sentencing enhancements for criminal street gang activity and discharge of a firearm causing death.  Continue reading→

A Santa Ana man was convicted of molesting a little girl at a Christmas gift giveaway

Posted on by Posted in Cochino Alert, Crime, OCDA, Santa Ana Leave a comment

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Case # 15CF2779

FELON CONVICTED OF SEXUALLY ASSAULTING 8-YEAR-OLD GIRL WHILE SHE WAITED IN LINE FOR CHRISTMAS PRESENTS OUTSIDE SCHOOL

SANTA ANA, Calif. – A felon was convicted yesterday of sexually assaulting an 8-year-old girl, who was waiting on a curb in line for Christmas presents at her elementary school.

Defendant: Raul Marin Martin, 59, Santa Ana

Found guilty by a jury today of: Continue reading→

The SAPD arrested a 44-year-old gangbanger for possessing four guns, a grenade and possibly meth

Posted on by Posted in Crime, Drugs, Gangs, Guns, Public Safety, Santa Ana, SAPD Leave a comment

Santa Ana Police Department

Advisory: Gang Detectives Arrest Suspect For Possession of an Explosive Device, Four Handguns And Controlled Substance

Suspect Arrested: Gregorio Rojas (44) Santa Ana

On 3/19/18, at approximately 8:00 PM, Gang Detectives conducted a traffic stop of an occupied vehicle in the area of 2900 W. 1st Street. When officers asked the driver if he had anything illegal the driver advised he had a hand grenade in the vehicle. The detectives observed an item, which appeared to be a modified pineapple grenade, on the front passenger seat. Continue reading→

Neighbors are opposing a new proposed bike trail near the Casa Bonita Neighborhood

Posted on by Posted in Bicycles, Crime, homeless, Neighborhood Associations, Public Safety, Santa Ana Leave a comment

The City of Santa Ana is proposing to open up the Santa Ana Riverbed to create a new bike trail that will affect residents living near the Casa Bonita Neighborhood from 1st to Willits & Raitt to the OC Flood Channel, according to an anonymous source.

Neighbors are concerned about this proposal as they allege that it will increase the chances of homeless encampments popping up again with so many of them having been recently displaced. They seem to gravitate towards riverbeds and bring with them increased crime including thefts from homes whose backyards will be exposed to the proposed new bike trail. The riverbed in question  has been closed for some 30 years. Continue reading→

The SAPD is dealing with a hand grenade found during a traffic stop tonight

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Are traffic stops ever routine in Santa Ana? What should have been a routine traffic stop this evening turned into a nightmare involving a live hand grenade, according to the O.C. Register.

Tonight’s shenanigans began as Santa Ana police officers conducted a traffic stop near West First and North Fairview Streets, at 7:58 p.m. When the officers asked one driver if he had anything illegal in his car he casually told them that he had a hand grenade in his car.  Continue reading→

OC Jail snitch fiasco resulted in a lighter sentence for a murderous Santa Ana gangbanger

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Eric Vasquez Ortiz, 28, a Santa Ana gangbanger, was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison on Friday after three trials for the same murder, according to the O.C. Register.

Ortiz shot and killed Emeterio Adame, 54, outside his Santa Ana home back in 2006. He was convicted of first-degree murder and faced life in prison without parole for that shooting death. However he was granted a new trial in 2015 by a Judge who found that he had been a victim of the Orange County jail-snitch fiasco. Continue reading→

Santa Ana College will host an O.C.D.A. candidates forum on March 21

Posted on by Posted in Brett Murdock, Crime, Lawyers, Lenore Albert-Sheridan, OCDA, Orange County, Politics, Santa Ana, Todd Spitzer, Tony Rackauckas 2 Comments

An OC District Attorney Candidates Forum will be hosted at Phillips Hall Theatre at Santa Ana College on Wednesday, March 21 from 6 p.m. – 8 p.m. Phillips Hall Theatre is located at 1530 W 17th St., in Santa Ana.

OCDA Candidates who will be at this forum include O.C. Supervisor Todd Spitzer, OCDA Tony Rackauckas, Lenore Albert-Sheridan and Brett Murdock. Continue reading→

Serial rapist who attacked a woman at the MainPlace Mall going to state prison for 56 years

Posted on by Posted in Anaheim, Cochino Alert, Crime, Orange, Santa Ana 1 Comment

Case # 13CF3891

Date: March 15, 2018

MAN SENTENCED TO 56 YEARS IN STATE PRISON FOR SEXUALLY ASSAULTING TWO WOMEN IN PARKING LOTS AND KIDNAPPING AND ROBBING A THIRD

SANTA ANA, Calif. – A man was sentenced to 56 years and eight months in state prison today for sexually assaulting two women and kidnapping and robbing a third in mall, fast food, and church parking lots.

Defendant: Raymond Martin Boykin, 22, Anaheim

Found guilty by a jury on June 8, 2017, of the following felony counts: Continue reading→

Overweight vaper wanted for a brutal murder in Westminster

Posted on by Posted in Crime, Westminster 1 Comment

Westminster police are looking for an overweight vaper who was caught on surveillance video at the scene where Treeanna Nichols, 22-year-old woman from Pasadena, was murdered on Feb. 5.

The suspect is seen in the video walking up the stairs of the Quality Inn on Westminster Boulevard at about 3 p.m. Feb. 5, while wearing a hooded sweatshirt and vaping. He leaves a short time later. Nichols was killed, according to police investigators, during that time period. Continue reading→

The SAPD arrested a man who barricaded himself in an apartment after threatening his mom

Posted on by Posted in Crime, Santa Ana, SAPD Leave a comment
Jose Carlos Velazquez-Martinez

Jose Carlos Velazquez-Martinez

Jose Carlos Velazquez-Martinez, 25 of Santa Ana, was arrested this afternoon after a 3-hour standoff with SAPD police officers, according to the  O.C. Register.

SAPD police officers arrived at an apartment at 811 South Fairview Street after they received a call about a son threatening his mother with a knife. Continue reading→

The OCDA is conducting a public hearing about rehab centers and health care trafficking tonight

Posted on by Posted in Crime, Drugs, Health and Medical, OCDA Leave a comment

The Orange County District Attorney’s Office (OCDA) is conducting a public hearing with invited presenters regarding the issue of rehabilitation exploitation and health care trafficking in Orange County, on Monday, March 12, 2018, from 5:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. Continue reading→

A man was assaulted and murdered at the Santa Ana Civic Center last night

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Santa Ana Police Department

Advisory: Detectives Investigating a Homicide in the Civic Center Area

Victim: Pending Notification of Next of Kin

On Sunday, March 11, 2018, at 11:34 PM, Santa Ana Police officers responded to reports of an assault with a victim down in the Plaza of the Flags within the City of Santa Ana Civic Center. Orange County Fire Authority paramedics treated the victim at scene and declared him deceased at 11:52 PM. Continue reading→