Palos Verdes police reports: a rescue off a cliff, murder charges
A KTLA screen capture of the rescue off Palos Verdes.
Man rescued after plummeting 300 feet off cliff
Early morning on Dec. 27, a 19-year-old man was rescued after he drove off a 300-foot cliff at the Bluff Cove area of Palos Verdes Estates. After a two-hour rescue operation by police and the Los Angeles County firefighters, he was airlifted to Harbor-UCLA Medical Center and listed in critical condition.
2 plead not guilty to burning SUV murder
Two men pleaded not guilty on Dec. 30 to the murder of a man whose body was discovered last April inside a burning SUV in Rancho Palos Verdes.
Jose Angel Martinez, 18, of Compton, and Adrian Berumen, 18, of Long Beach each face a count of murder and a count of felony arson in the death of Christopher Waters, a 42-year-old Long Beach man who was believed to be involved in the suspects’ silk screening business.
Berumen, who was 17 at the time, faces a special allegation that he used a mini bat as a deadly weapon in the attack.
Los Angeles County sheriff’s homicide Lt. Holly Francisco told the L.A. Times that the suspects drove the SUV to RPV with Waters’ corpse on April 23 and then set the vehicle on fire.
When firefighters extinguished the fire, they found the victim in the back of the car with his feet bound together and a cord wrapped around his neck.
Martinez and Berumen are expected back in court on Jan. 31 for a pretrial hearing. The two are being held in jail in lieu of bail, set at $1.05 million and $2.06 million respectively.