Mom arrested in death of her 3 kids was in custody dispute
LOS ANGELES — The woman arrested on suspicion of killing her three young children at her Los Angeles apartment had been involved in a custody dispute with their father, according to a newspaper report Sunday.
Liliana Carrillo, 30, was arrested Saturday in Tulare County after fleeing the gruesome scene and leading law enforcement officers on a long-distance chase, authorities said.
The Los Angeles Times cites family court documents that show Eric Denton sought custody of the children — ages 3, 2 and 6 months — on March 1.
Denton requested a temporary emergency visitation order from the court on March 4 and petitioned for a mental health evaluation of Carrillo, according to the newspaper. Orders were drawn up at a March 26 hearing. Another hearing in the case was scheduled for April 14.
In response, Carrillo sought a temporary domestic violence restraining order against Denton on March 12 in Los Angeles County Superior Court, documents show.
In a brief interview with the Times, Denton confirmed he was the father of the three children — two girls and a boy — and said he’d been in a custody battle with Carrillo after she began acting mentally unstable.
Denton said he tried to get local authorities to intervene, but “in L.A. they wouldn’t help. The LAPD would not get involved.” He said
Carrillo was supposed to turn over the kids to him on Sunday.
The children’s grandmother returned home from work Saturday morning and found the bodies and the mother missing, Los Angeles police Lt. Raul Jovel said.
Police said initial reports suggested the children had been stabbed to death, but no official cause of death has been released.
Los Angeles police initially received reports Carrillo was driving her car and heading north on Interstate 5 when she got in an altercation in the Bakersfield area. She abandoned her car and carjacked another vehicle, Jovel said.
Carrillo was detained in the Ponderosa area of Tulare County, about 100 miles north of Bakersfield, police said.
LOS ANGELES — The city of Los Angeles has opened up vaccines to younger people, days ahead of the state broadening eligibility to everyone 16 and older.
An option to book vaccine appointments for Los Angeles residents 16 and older at city-run inoculation sites appeared on the registration website starting Saturday, the LA Times reported.
“We are excited to open vaccination appointments for Angelenos 16 and older,” Mayor Eric Garcetti said in a statement. “We continue to receive a limited supply of vaccines, and when we receive greater supply in the weeks ahead, the city will be ready to administer even more vaccines quickly and safely.”
The expansion of vaccine eligibility in Los Angeles follows similar moves by the Southern California counties of Riverside and San Bernardino, Santa Clara County in the San Francisco Bay Area and Central Valley counties Kern and Fresno.
People age 16 and up can get the Pfizer vaccine while the Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccines are for people 18 and older.
However, California public health officials warned Thursday of decreases in supply because of a national reduction of the oneshot Johnson & Johnson vaccine in coming weeks.
The state received about 2.4 million doses last week, but it expects 2 million this week and 1.9 million doses next week.