Palos Verdes High student pleads not guilty to alleged gang murder charges

Cameron Terrell, an alleged gang member, pleaded not guilty to murder and attempted murder charges last week. Photo from Facebook

Cameron Terrell, an alleged gang member, pleaded not guilty to murder and attempted murder charges last week. Photo from Facebook

Cameron Terrell, a Palos Verdes High School student, has pleaded not guilty to murder charges stemming from an allegedly gang-related shooting in South Los Angeles.

The 18-year-old Palos Verdes Estates resident pleaded not guilty to one count of murder and two counts of attempted murder in Los Angeles Superior Court last week. Police say Terrell was the driver in an October shooting that claimed the life of Justin Holmes, a 21-year-old Los Angeles resident. Two others were shot at.

The criminal complaint against Terrell alleges that the crime was a gang shooting, and Terrell is referred to by his supposed gang moniker, “White Boy.” Although police and prosecutors have not named the gang, Terrell appears in a music video of a rap song linked to the Rollin 90s Neighborhood Crips, a set of the Crips street gang. It is unclear how Terrell became involved in the gang, whose claimed territory stops far north of the Palos Verdes Peninsula.

According to a statement from the Los Angeles Police Department, Holmes and the two other people, thought to be friends of Holmes, were walking in the area of 78th Street and Western Avenue on Oct. 1 about 11:30 a.m. The three had just left a business near the intersection when two suspects approached them. The suspects asked the trio “where they were from,” and one of the suspects fired a gun at them multiple times, police said. The two suspects then fled in a vehicle.

Holmes was hit and taken by paramedics to a nearby hospital, where he was pronounced dead. It was not immediately clear what happened to the other two victims, who were identified in court papers only as “B.G.” and “L.G.” Police said that Terrell was “the alleged driver in the incident.” Holmes and his friends are not thought to have been involved in gangs.

Terrell was arrested by deputies with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Homicide Bureau on Oct. 12, sheriff’s records indicate. He was held in jail until being released on $5 million bail.

Jovan Blacknell, Terrell’s attorney in the case, declined comment, and emails sent to a spokesperson were not immediately returned. But when a television news camera sought permission to film his client’s court appearance, Blacknell successfully objected by stating that “identification” would be an issue in the case.

The two other suspects in the case have not been identified because they are juveniles. In California, there is no bail for juveniles, who must instead convince a judge that to release them. As of last week the two suspects were being held at a juvenile hall facility in the Sylmar neighborhood of Los Angeles.

Casey Jarvis, the assistant district attorney handling the case, said that his office was in the process of charging the two juveniles as adults, and would seek to join their case with Terrell’s.

According to story in South Bay Magazine in 2015, Terrell moved to Palos Verdes Estates from Redondo Beach in 2002. His mother Deb, identified as a professional interior designer, told South Bay that the family frequently used the residence to entertain, including a fundraiser for Torrance Memorial Hospital. The couple are listed as “Platinum Ambassadors” in a Spring 2017 publication from the hospital thanking patrons. Don is listed in public records as the president of New and Improved Media, an El Segundo-based advertising company.

Terrell continued attending Palos Verdes High School for a time after his release from jail. But a parents’ group called “Residents Against Gangs at School” sent a letter to the school district objecting to his presence. The letter, drafted by Jeffrey Lewis, a Rolling Hills Estates attorney, said that allowing Terrell to continue to attend the school raised “serious safety concerns.” The superintendent later announced that Terrell would enter an independent study program.

Terrell’s next court date is a preliminary hearing, tentatively set for the morning of Jan. 9 at the Criminal Courts Building in downtown Los Angeles.

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