JLWOP Inmate Jamal Rhone
On November 2, 2007, Jamal Rhone was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for murdering 89-year- old Fidencio Guzman at an Ontario park on Oct. 28, 2004.
The elderly victim had taken a rest break from his daily walk to lie down in the park when three teenage gang members attempted to rob the victim and shot him twice. Jamal Tyron Rhone, Fredrick Melvin Stewart and Trayvon Andrew Patterson were all members of the Watts-based Bounty Hunter Bloods gang. Mr. Guzman did not speak English and had no money to give the robbers. Rhone fired a handgun, striking Guzman twice and the victim died shortly after he was attacked. According to witnesses after the shooting of the defenseless old man, the assailants ran from the scene, exchanging high-fives and congratulatory slaps on the backs.
The three defendants admitted in police interviews that they had robbed other victims in the same park in two separate incidents months prior to the murder of Fidencio Guzman.
JLWOP Inmate Tyson Atlas
Tyson Atlas was convicted of the April 22, 2006 murder of Gregory Smith. Smith, 17, was shot to death in Rialto as he was walking in the area of Winchester Street and Cactus Ave. On January 23, 2008 Atlas was sentenced to life without possibility of parole for the special circumstance murder of Smith.
Atlas was also charged with assault with a firearm from a shooting incident at a crowded party at the Victoria Gardens Cultural Center on March 9, 2007. Witnesses said Atlas and Brandon Moore arrived at the dance and started “gang banging.” When organizers asked them to leave, both men pulled out gun. Moore fired twice into the air, causing hundreds of party goers to stampede the exits. An attendee at the party recognized Atlas and Moore from a separate shooting on Feb. 16th in Fontana. Moore and Atlas tried to kill a man who had been dating Atlas’ girlfriend. When Atlas saw his girlfriend in the man’s car, he struck the man in the face and told Moore to shoot him. Moore fired two shots in the car and struck the man in the leg.
JLWOP Inmate Christopher Turelle White
.Christopher Turtle White was convicted of robbing and killing Cue Vie Liquor Store owner Steven Hall and clerk Brian Gregorio on March 16, 2005. The double murder was caught on store surveillance video which was a powerful piece of evidence during the 2009 trial
On March 16, 2005, White and Darnell Allan, both wearing masks, entered the store and robbed the owner and clerk of cash and lottery tickets. After Allan fled the store with the items, White shot the two victims in the head as they stood with their hands in the air.
Separate juries heard the case against co-defendants Darwin Lamont Richardson, and Tristan Darnell Allan. Tristan Darnell Allan and Darwin Lamont Richardson, the getaway driver, were also sentenced to two consecutive sentences of life without parole.
JLWOP Inmate Roman Barnes
On January 5, 1999 Barnes, then 16, beat his 85-year-old next door neighbor Althea Dresser to death with a brick after breaking into her house to rob her. He stole a videocassette recorder and other valuables and then set the house on fire.
Barnes had earlier broken into Dresser’s home in December 1998 and played a kind of “cat-and-mouse game” with her, hiding in one room while Dresser was in another room, and even defecating on her floor.
Detectives found Dresser’s badly burned body with deep head wounds and a brick lying nearby. Police later found Dresser’s stolen videocassette recorder in the back yard of Barnes’ mother. Barnes told investigators that he waited 10 minutes to make sure Dresser was dead before pouring gasoline around her body and starting the fire. Medical testimony established that Dresser died of blunt-force trauma to the head..
.
