LOCAL In BRIEF

Murder trial for Canyon Country truck driver is delayed

More than two years after he was arrested for murder, a Canyon Country truck driver is still waiting for his trial to begin.

Michael Joe McGlothan, was 51 when he was arrested. He turned 54 on Sunday.

On Thursday, he appeared in San Fernando Superior Court for a pre-trial hearing related to his murder trial which has yet to begin.

He was ordered Thursday to return to court next month.

McGlothan was arrested

in the May 6, 2015, shooting death of 21-year-old Ledarion Allen Jr. of Lancaster.

The truck driver is also suspected of shooting and wounding 30-year-old Shatari Shene Cooks inside an apartment on Sierra Highway in Canyon Country.

McGlothan and Cooks reportedly shared the apartment. And Cooks and Allen were shot inside the unit.

Deputies with the Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station began looking for McGlothan immediately after the shooting but could not find him.

During the manhunt, detectives received many tips indicating the wanted man was in the San Gabriel Valley and the west side of Los Angeles, Lt. Eddie Hernandez with the Los Angeles County Sheriff Department’s Homicide Bureau said at the

time of the arrest.

“But then we tracked him circling the area near the Pennsylvania-New York border,” he said in June 2015. “Once we got a feeling he was heading north to Canada, we decided to take him down.”

New York State Police followed McGlothan, driving a Volvo big rig, to the New York State Thruway toll barrier on Interstate 90 in the town of Ripley some 60 miles southwest of Buffalo.

The day after he was arrested, LASD homicide detectives filed an extradition warrant to begin the process of having their sole suspect in the murder returned to Los Angeles for trial.

Once McGlothan was placed in custody in Los Angeles, his bail was set at $3.03 million.