During the first day of a hearing to determine if a 19-year-old man and two teens will stand trial for the beating death of a USC graduate student from China, a police detective testified Tuesday that surveillance video showed the victim being chased before he managed to get back to his apartment, where he was found dead in his bed.
Los Angeles police Detective Matthew Courtney told Los Angeles Superior Court Judge M.L. Villar, who is presiding over the estimated two-day preliminary hearing, that investigators gathered surveillance video from USC and other nearby locations while investigating Xinran Ji’s killing last July 24 near the campus.
Jonathan Del Carmen is charged, along with Alberto Ochoa, 17, and Alejandra Guerrero, 16, in the murder of the 24-year-old electrical engineering graduate student.
Criminal proceedings were suspended against a fourth defendant, 19-year- old Andrew Garcia, who is set to undergo an evaluation next month to determine if he is mentally competent to stand trial. As he was being led out of court Monday, Garcia used an expletive to complain about spending time behind bars and shouted, “Can I go home now?”
The victim was targeted while walking home from a study session around 12:45 a.m. near 29th Street and Orchard Avenue.
Courtney testified that detectives collected surveillance video that showed a car being driven in the area shortly before the attack, along with video showing Ji — who was wearing a backpack — being confronted and chased down the street before the vehicle left the area.
“Some portions of the video are clearer than others,” Courtney said.
The detective said a USC employee informed police that there was a “hit” from a license plate reader on a vehicle resembling the car in the surveillance video. He said he also viewed clearer license plate reader images from the LAPD.
The detective told the judge that Del Carmen admitted that he drove a 1993 Honda Accord with that license plate number, but the detective was not questioned about further details of Del Carmen’s statement.
Courtney said he went to the apartment building at 1247 W. 30th St. last July 24 after being notified of a suspicious death and found Ji dead in his bed.
The police detective said he saw potential blood droplets near the front door of the apartment building and near the elevator, along with potential blood evidence in the living room, bathroom and bedroom of Ji’s unit.
The evidence included sneakers covered with potential blood evidence, Courtney testified.
The victim’s roommate said she had last seen him alive the night before, and told police that she woke up that morning and that he did not respond when she called out his name upon seeing him on his bed with blood on him, the detective testified.
Courtney told the judge that he followed a possible blood trail to the scene nearby where Ji was initially attacked.
Along with murder, the defendants face a special circumstance allegation that the murder occurred during an attempted robbery. The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office will decide later whether to seek the death penalty against Del Carmen and Garcia. Ochoa and Guerrero, who are charged as adults, cannot face the death penalty because they are under 18.
Garcia, Ochoa and Guerrero are also charged with one count each of robbery, attempted robbery and assault with a deadly weapon for an alleged attack on a man and woman at Dockweiler Beach early the same day.
The group allegedly robbed the woman, Claudia Rocha, but the man escaped and flagged down police.
Rocha — who said she prayed as the attack began — identified Ochoa and Guerrero as being involved in the robbery, saying she was 99 percent certain about her identification of Guerrero.
The young woman testified that Guerrero demanded the keys to a car belonging to Rocha’s friend and then pulled out a pocketknife in an apparent attempt to get Rocha’s purse. She said that Guerrero picked up about $40 to $50 from the ground after the purse’s strap split a bit and money fell from the purse.
— City News Service