A homeless man was behind bars Friday in connection with a shooting in January that left three men dead and another wounded in Palmdale.
Jonathan Paul Misirli, 35, is scheduled to be arraigned Monday at the Lancaster courthouse in connection with the Jan. 16 killings of Olukayode Owolabi, 27, of Los Angeles; Sean Cowen, 24, of Van Nuys and David Hernandez-Licona, 25, of Los Angeles.
Misirli is charged with three counts of murder and one count each of attempted murder and second-degree robbery.
The murder charges include the special circumstance allegations of multiple murders and murder during the commission of a robbery, along with allegations that he personally discharged a rifle, according to Ricardo Santiago of the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office.
Prosecutors will decide later whether to seek the death penalty against Misirli, who is being held without bail.
He was arrested about noon Tuesday as he walked along North Vermont Avenue, just north of Los Feliz Boulevard, in the Los Feliz area of Los Angeles, according to Deputy Grace Medrano of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. Sheriff’s detectives learned that Misirli had been living in the park area surrounding the Griffith Park Observatory and was captured without incident as he walked out of the wooded area, she said.
Detectives identified Misirli as the suspected shooter in the deaths of the three men on Rancho Center Drive and 40th Street West. The first deputies to respond that night located four men in two cars parked at the location, all suffering from apparent gunshot wounds, according to sheriff’s Deputy Marvin Crowder.
Owolabi, Cowen and Hernandez-Licona were pronounced dead at the scene and the fourth victim was taken to a hospital.