Recent Posts in Convicted Felon Category

A former insurance claims adjuster who was suspected of terrorizing women in the 1970s as the Westside Rapist has been sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for seven murders that were committed in two waves of killings and sexual assaults.

John Floyd Thomas was sentenced for the killings that took place in a area stretching from Inglewood to Claremont. Police describe him as one of the California's most prolific serial killers, saying that he is still a suspect in at least 10 to 15 additional murders.

Police said the sexual attacks targeted women who ranged in age from their 50s to their 90s, many of whom lived alone. He broke into their homes at night and raped and choked his victims until they passed out or died. His sentence was part of a plea deal with prosecutors that was described as an act of pragmatism rather than an act of mercy.

She noted that capital punishment was not legal in California when all but one of the killings Thomas admitted to were committed. She said the death penalty would not have been relevant in this case because Thomas would probably die in prison during his appeals, given his age.

Thomas was born in Los Angeles and was raised by an aunt and his godmother after his mother died when he was 12. He attended public schools, and briefly joined the U.S. Air Force in 1956. At Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada, he received a dishonorable discharge. The next year, he was convicted of burglary and attempted rape, which put him in prison for nearly almost 10 years. After his release, police noticed a string of assaults on elderly white women. The attacker was dubbed the Westside Rapist at the time.

The attacks appeared to stop in 1978, when Thomas was convicted and sentenced to prison for the rape of a Pasadena woman. After his release in 1983, he moved to Chino, coinciding with a wave of rapes and killings that began in the Pomona Valley area.

The Westside Rapist faded from public memory and authorities made limited progress in the Claremont killings until 2004, when the LAPD matched male DNA taken from two of the crime scenes. The final break in the case came in October 2008, when two officers collected DNA from Thomas while trying to identify the so-called Grim Sleeper serial killer, who was linked to homicides in South Los Angeles starting in the 1980s. Several months later, detectives learned that Thomas' genetic profile matched DNA evidence from four of the killings he admitted in court.

Police will conduct an intensive investigation following a murder or sexual assault. Therefore, if you are criminally charged, you will need a skilled criminal defense attorney from Marks & Brooklier. Criminal defense lawyers  Donald Marks and  Anthony Brooklier have been successfully representing clients for murder and rape charges for decades. They have the experience necessary to provide you with skilled criminal defense in all Los Angeles County Courts. It takes a dedicated legal team to fight a murder or sexual assault charge, and with our firm you can feel condifent that we will provide you with the highest quality criminal defense team. Our Los Angeles criminal defense lawyers are aggressive in the court room and look forward to defending your case. Contact us for a free case consultation.

In Santa Ana, California, a Lake Forest man goes on trial on multiple felony charges of raping five women and sexually assaulting a sixth. The charges against Sekayi Rudo White, could result in a sentence of 119 years to life in prison if he is convicted of all counts. He is accused of 14 felony counts involving six women he met in bars, had been dating, or was acquainted with during a five-year span.

Prosecutors say that three of the victims initially were too frightened to report the sexual attacks, but called police after they read news accounts of his arrest in connection with the other three women. And one of the assaults took place after he was released on $250,000 bail. He has been in custody without bail since that incident in Lake Forest on March 31, 2007.

White is accused of forcible rape, assault with intent to commit rape, sexual battery, dissuading a witness and residential burglary, plus sentencing enhancements for committing sex crimes against multiple victims, using a deadly weapon, and committing crimes while out on bail. The six incidents according to prosecutors:

On March 31, 2007, a 28-year-old woman was drinking with a friend at Patsy's Irish Pub in Lake Forest. Prosecutors say he covertly followed the victim home, knocked on her door, and was allowed inside after she recognized him. He raped her after she passed out.

On Feb. 21, 2007, he broke into the home of a 22-year-old woman he had been dating, pushed her to the ground, and stepped on her chest as he removed her clothes. He is accused of forcibly raping the victim as he held a large hunting knife to her neck.

One night in January 2007, a woman renting a room from the victim in the Feb. 21 incident was attacked in her bedroom after he broke the lock on her door. He is accused of threatening to kill her if she reported the rape.

On Aug. 13, 2006, White met a 19-year-old woman at Atlanta Lounge in Huntington Beach, California. He offered to give the drunken victim a ride home, but instead drove her to his apartment and raped her.

On Dec. 23, 2005 White met a 44-year-old woman at the Fox Sports Grill at the Irvine Spectrum and offered to give her a ride home because she had been drinking. After arriving at her Newport Beach apartment, he asked to use the bathroom. Prosecutors say he ran out of the bathroom naked, tried to rape the woman while threatening to kill her if she told anyone, but she screamed anyway and he fled the scene.

In September 2002, White met a 22-year-old woman in driving school and asked her out for a date. He is accused of taking her to a hotel in Santa Ana and forcibly raping her while she was temporarily unconscious. After the attack, he is accused of harassing the woman, who did not initially report the incident,  by showing up at her work and home.

If you have been charged with a rape or any type of sex crime, you need the skilled defense services of a Los Angeles rape criminal defense attorney who has the experience and knowledge of this area of the law. At Marks & Brooklier, attorneys Donald Marks and Anthony Brooklier are qualified Los Angeles sex crimes lawyers who will aggressively defend you. Our skilled lawyers have handled high profile cases involving rape with great success and can do the same for you. Contact us for a free consultation, 24/7, strictly confidential.

The bodies of Phong Le, 30, his wife, Ngoc "Trish" Lam, 25, and their son Tommy, were found in separate bedrooms in their Garden Grove home. They had been bound, gagged and stabbed multiple times. The couple's infant daughter, dehydrated but alive , was found next to the body of her mother.

During the trial, Deputy District Attorney Scott Simmons argued that Le had borrowed $80,000 from Quan but never paid it back. That was the motivation for the murders, he said. Quan, who has two prior strike convictions for robbery and assault with a deadly weapon in 1990, was sentenced by Orange County Superior Court Judge William R. Froeberg.

Police will conduct an intensive investigation following a murder. Therefore, if you are charged, you will need a skilled homicide attorney from Marks & Brooklier. Murder criminal defense lawyers Donald Marks and Anthony Brooklier have been representing clients for murder charges for decades and have the resources and experience necessary to provide you with skilled criminal defense. It takes a dedicated legal team to fight a murder charge, and with our firm you can feel condifent that we will provide you with the highest quality criminal defense team possible. Our Los Angeles homicide and murder criminal defense lawyers are aggressive in a court room setting and look forward to assisting you with your case. Contact us for a free consultation, 24/7.

A Santa Ana man was charged with abducting and raping a 16-year-old girl as she was walking home from a fast-food restaurant. Police were led to Juan Humberto Avila, from DNA collected after he was convicted of a federal weapons charge in Ariznoa.

The girl was walking home after meeting friends at an In-and-Out Burger in Santa Ana about 1:30 a.m. on Jan. 21, 2008, when her attacker jumped on her and punched her, according to prosecutors. Avila allegedly dragged the girl across the street while threatening to stab her to death if she screamed. He allegedly forced her behind large storage containers at the rear of a parking lot, where he repeatedly raped and sodomized the teenager before forcing her to orally copulate him.

Avila stole the girl's bank card before fleeing. She ran home and reported the assault to the Santa Ana Police Department. Prosecutors said DNA was recovered from the girl during a medical rape examination, but the case remained cold until recently, when the recovered DNA was matched to Avila's.

Avila is charged with felony sexual penetration by a foreign object by force and two felony counts each of forcible rape, sodomy by force and forcible oral copulation. He is also accused of inflicting great bodily injury and kidnapping. Avila has a previous strike against him from a 1997 conviction for participating in a criminal street gang. He faces a maximum sentence of 355 years to life in state prison if convicted. Prosecutors planned to request that Avila be held on $2-million bail.

If you have been charged with a rape or kidnapping, you will need the services of a Los Angeles rape criminal defense lawyer who has the special knowledge of this area of the law. At Marks & Brooklier, attorneys Donald Marks and Anthony Brooklier are qualified Los Angeles and Beverly Hills sex crimes lawyers to represent you. You will need the over 33 years of experience that our law firm can provide you with. Our legal team has handled high profile cases involving rape and kidnapping with great success and can do the same for you. Contact us for a free consultation, 24/7, strictly confidential.

In Fresno, California, a United States Attorney, Drug Enforcement Administration Special Agent in Charge, and Fresno County Sheriff announced the unsealing of a federal indictment charging Bounepheng Savongsy, Phousangkhy Phanthadeth, Manop Souksavath, all of Fresno; Ernson Merisier, of Holbrook, Mass.; Marquis Allen Meca,  of New Bedford, Mass.; and Ruddys A. Pimentel, 28, of Roslindale, Mass.; with conspiring to manufacture, to distribute, and to possess with intent to distribute marijuana.

According to criminal complaints filed in the case, the defendants were involved in the interstate shipment and distribution of marijuana that was being grown in Fresno, under the guise of being “medicinal.” The marijuana was grown in agricultural fields in Fresno County that were posted with medicinal marijuana recommendations from medical doctors. Rather than being distributed in California for medicinal purposes, however, the defendants are charged with conspiring to make multiple shipments of large quantities of the marijuana to areas in and around Boston, where the drug was sold for about $3,000 per pound, about three times what it sells for in California.

The criminal complaints indicate that Savongsy is a grower and source of marijuana supply for the out-of-state drug traffickers. His nephew, Phanthadeth, is an interstate transporter who cultivated purportedly medicinal marijuana at the same location in southwest Fresno as his uncle and owns two properties in Fresno where marijuana was grown and processed. Souksavath is an interstate transporter, who has shipped multiple loads to the East Coast, two of which he transported with Phanthadeth. Merisier (a convicted drug felon), Meca, and Pimentel, are marijuana distributors in the Boston area. Phanthadeth and Souksavath were arrested in Utah in the course of transporting marijuana on November 4, 2010, following a traffic stop of their vehicle, which contained about 184 pounds of marijuana. The marijuana was then delivered to Merisier, Meca, and Pimentel in Roslindale, Mass., who agreed to purchase the load for about $570,400. Searches executed in the course of the investigation at locations in Fresno, Cedar City, Utah, and Roslindale, Mass. yielded 11 firearms, approximately 4,620 live marijuana plants, approximately 3,563 pounds of processed marijuana, approximately $115,000 in cash, and jewelry valued at about $9,000.

United States Attorney said: “As this case indicates, armed criminals who engage in the interstate trafficking of marijuana cannot hide their operations behind the label of ‘medicinal’ marijuana. We will continue to root out and prosecute drug traffickers who seek to use California’s medicinal marijuana law to cloak their illegal activity.”

This case is the product of a four-month investigation by the DEA offices in Fresno, Salt Lake City, and Boston, and the Fresno County Sheriff’s Office, with assistance from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, California Department of Justice Central Valley Marijuana Investigation Team, Tulare County Sheriff’s Office, Utah Highway Patrol, Boston Police Department, and North Attleboro Police Department. Assistant United States Attorney Karen A. Escobar is prosecuting the case. The U.S. Attorney’s Offices in St. George, Utah and Boston assisted in the arrests of the defendants and initial court proceedings.

With the exception of Savongsy, the defendants are in federal custody and detained without bail. An arrest warrant has issued for Savongsy, who is at large. In connection with the execution of one of six federal search warrants obtained in this case, agents also arrested Douangchanh Keovilayvanh, of Sanger, California, who was charged via a federal criminal complaint with possessing marijuana with intent to distribute and being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm.

If convicted of the drug offenses, the defendants, with the exception of Merisier, face a penalty of 10 years to life in prison and a $4 million fine. Based on his prior felony drug conviction, Merisier faces a penalty of 20 years to life in prison and an $8 million fine. The actual sentence, however, will be determined at the discretion of the court after consideration of any applicable statutory factors and the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, which take into account a number of variables.

Criminal defense attorneys Donald Marks and Anthony Brooklier have been representing clients on marijuana drug trafficking matters for over four decades. We are well aware of all the issues and complexities that can arise from such charges and have successfully handled numerous cases for our clients. When faced with marijuana drug trafficking charges you need experienced Los Angeles marijuana drug trafficking criminal defense attorneys with extensive experience in representing clients for drug crimes. Such charges could include offenses for drug possession, drug trafficking and other drug related charges. If you or someone you know has been charged with a drug crime, we recommend you contact us in order to begin to prepare your case for a successful defense.