Police Beat: Domestic quarrel ends in tragedies
by Liz Mullen
A 34-year-old Woodland Hills woman stabbed her boyfriend to death, ejected her two children onto the 405 freeway, killing her infant girl and injuring her 9-year-old daughter, and crashed her car into a tree on Pacific Coast Highway at Vincent Street in Redondo Beach, killing herself, the Redondo Beach Police report.
Danielle Cherakiyah Johnson, driving a black Porsche SUV Cayenne near the intersection of Pacific Coast Highway and Vincent, struck a tree at about 4:59 a.m. Monday April 8. She was driving southbound on Pacific Coast Highway in excess of 100 miles an hour, according to the Los Angeles Police Department.
Johnson, who was alone in the SUV, was pronounced dead by Redondo Beach Fire Department paramedics.
The Redondo Beach Police Department’s fatal accident investigation team closed PCH in both directions, from Emerald Street to Diamond Street, all day Tuesday while conducting their investigation,” said RBPD Detective Scot Martin, who heads the team.
The LAPD, in it’s press release called the crash a “suicide.”
But Martin said, “We don’t have any indication that it was intentional. It looks from the evidence we are seeing that the vehicle was traveling southbound at a high rate of speed and the speed was unsafe for the given conditions,” he said.
Police did not initially know that Johnson was involved in two separate crimes prior to crashing her car.
The crime spree started when Johnson, 34, had an argument with her boyfriend, Jaelen Chaney, 29, in the Woodland Hills apartment they shared with Johnson’s two children at about 3:40 a.m. Monday, Jan. 8. The argument “escalated into Johnson becoming violent, stabbing Chaney, who succumbed to his injuries,” the LAPD said in its press release. A knife with “biological evidence” was found at the scene, according to the LAPD.
Johnson then took her two children in her Porsche SUV. At about 4:29 in the morning, she was headed northbound on the 405 Freeway at Centinela Avenue when “the minors fell or were thrown out of the moving vehicle,” the California Highway Patrol said.
The eight-month-old girl suffered “major” injuries and was pronounced dead by the Culver City Fire Department medical personnel at 4:44 a.m, according to the CHP. The nine-year-old girl suffered “moderate” injuries and was taken to a local hospital.
The LAPD was alerted to the stabbing murder scene at 7:35 a.m. when Johnson’s neighbors on Variel Avenue in Woodland Hills noticed the apartment door was open. The neighbors entered the apartment and found Chaney dead and called LAPD.
Anyone with any information about the stabbing incident is asked to call the LAPD at (877) 527-3247. Anyone who saw the Porsche SUV on the 405 is asked to call the CHP at (323) 259-3200. Anyone with information about the Porsche’s travels on PCH is asked to call the RBPD at (310) 379-2477.
Dodge Rams gone
Two Dodge Ram Pickup trucks and two catalytic converters were stolen in Redondo Beach during the period of March 15 through April 4.
A 2022 white Dodge Ram Pickup was stolen on March 25 on the 2100 block of Manhattan Beach Boulevard. A 2023 black Dodge Ram pickup was stolen on March 22 on the 2700 block of Aviation.
The two catalytic converters were stolen from different areas of the city. Catalytic converters have been cut out of vehicles in all of the Beach Cities in recent weeks.
Three other vehicles were stolen in Redondo between March 15 and April 4 — a Corvette, a Camaro, and a Springdale trailer.
Three residential burglaries or attempted burglaries also occurred between March 15 and April 4. On March 22 a suspect attempted to enter a residence by stealing a ladder from a construction site. The would-be burglar fled when a neighbor yelled at him.
HBPD warns of not so kindly scams
Hermosa Beach Police Chief Paul LeBaron warned citizens of trends in which scammers use friendly conversation as a ploy to steal property from victims
“These crimes are very orchestrated,” LeBaron told the Hermosa Beach city council during his regular report. “They involve suspects working together while targeting distracted or vulnerable victims.”
LeBaron called the new schemes “crimes of goodwill” because they often involved suspects asking for directions or other types of help. It could also involve pleasant conversation, with the suspects complimenting the victim.
One example LeBaron gave involved a person who left her handbag in the front seat of her car while unloading groceries into the back of the car. One suspect engaged the victim in conversation while the suspect’s accomplice took the bag, LeBaron said.
Another example LeBaron shared with the council — adding that it happened this past weekend — involved a suspect engaging a victim in conversation and shaking the victim’s hand in thanks. The suspect was able to remove the victim’s ring during the handshake, LeBaron said.
“These types of suspects committing these types of crimes are not amateurs,” LeBaron said. “They are not doing it one time. They are experienced criminals who commit these types of crimes as a fulltime job,” he said.
Old evidence solves cold case
HBPD officers recently helped police in another jurisdiction solve a two-year-old murder case, LeBaron told the City Council at its Tuesday April 9.
In July, 2022, a HBPD officer arrested a suspect for possession of methamphetamine and “property that belonged to other people,” LeBaron said. In January 2023, another police department investigating a murder in another city contacted HBPD about the suspect July 2022 suspect.
“Our detectives worked with their detectives, and ultimately determined that some of the property our officer had recovered belonged to the murder victim,” LeBaron said.
As a result, the suspect confessed to the murder, LeBaron said.
Two pharmacies, two burglaries
Manhattan Beach Police Department officers responded to two separate calls for aid in the parking lots of two different CVS stores in the city on March 30.
A woman who had made a cash withdrawal at her bank and later went to the CVS on the 2900 block of Sepulveda found the passenger side window of her car shattered. A burglar had removed the bank envelope containing the cash from the center console of the vehicle.
That same day, MBPD officers responded to a call at the CVS store at 1570 Rosecrans Avenue. A suspect who had stolen items from the store was checking car door handles in the parking lot, apparently to see if the cars were unlocked.
Officers attempted to arrest the suspect and a struggle ensued, resulting in the suspect and two officers sustaining minor injuries.
On April 3, MBPD officers responded to a call about a nanny who was being threatened — possibly with a knife — by a transient on the 600 block of Rosecrans. Officers arrived and found the unhoused person did not have a knife but was holding a rock. The unhoused person was taken for a mental health evaluation.
MBPD took 44 crime reports during the week of March 28 to April 4, including three for assault, three for auto theft, four for theft, two for vehicle burglary and one for residential burglary. ER