Man arrested in Calif. bishop’s killing had worked for him
LOS ANGELES — A man arrested Monday in the weekend killing of a Catholic bishop that shocked Los Angeles religious and immigrant communities is the husband of the victim’s housekeeper and had done work at his home, authorities said.
Auxiliary Bishop David O’Connell, 69, was fatally shot Saturday in the bedroom of his home in Hacienda Heights, an unincorporated community about 20 miles east of downtown Los Angeles, Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna said.
A SWAT team arrested Carlos Medina, the husband of O’Connell’s housekeeper, at their home in Torrance, about 35 miles southwest of Hacienda Heights, Luna said.
The sheriff said detectives first linked Medina to the crime after finding surveillance video that showed his SUV in the driveway of O’Connell’s home at the time of the killing.
A caller told authorities that Medina, 65, was acting irrationally and had made comments about O’Connell “owing him money,” Luna said, adding that a motive in the killing remains under investigation.
He said detectives found no evidence of forced entry at the archdiocese-owned home and that Medina’s wife was cooperating with detectives. Detectives recovered weapons at Medina’s home and ballistic tests are pending, Luna said.
5-year firearms enhancement dropped in Baldwin case
The prosecution in the case of a fatal New Mexico film-set shooting made a stark turnaround Monday, dropping the possibility of a mandatory five-year sentence against Alec Baldwin, new court filings show.
The actor-producer’s attorneys had earlier objected to the enhancement, saying it was unconstitutional because it was added after the October 2021 shooting. Legal experts had said Baldwin had a strong chance of seeing it tossed out.
“The prosecutors committed a basic legal error by charging Mr. Baldwin under a version of the firearm-enhancement statue that did not exist on the date of the accident,” Baldwin’s attorneys said in an earlier court filing.
Baldwin’s attorney declined to comment Monday after the reversal by prosecutors, who earlier criticized his efforts to have the sentencing requirement dropped.