A Texas man pleaded not guilty Tuesday in the shooting death of a man who was walking his dog in his Mid-City Los Angeles neighborhood in March.
Cliffton Kamal Styles, now 21, is charged with murder in the March 12 slaying of Marcos Sandoval.
The 52-year-old man was walking his dog about 5 a.m. that day near the corner of Genesee Avenue and Saturn Street when a dark-colored sedan approached and stopped at the northwest corner of the intersection.
Styles exited the car, exchanged words with Sandoval and fired multiple shots at him, according to the Los Angeles Police Department. Styles allegedly got back into the sedan and drove northbound on Genesee, police said.
Sandoval was discovered about 6:15 a.m. by a passerby, who called 911. Paramedics pronounced him dead at the scene.
The small white dog was not injured and returned home on its own, police said.
“Detectives determined that Styles traveled from San Marcos, Texas, and arrived at Florida,” police said. “Styles then drove cross country from Florida to Los Angeles where he committed the murder… Thereafter, he traveled to San Diego, returning to San Marcos, Texas.”
Styles was arrested about 1 1/2 months later at his residence in San Marcos, Texas.
He was transferred to California on Aug. 3 and remains jailed in lieu of $2.05 million bail, according to jail records.
Styles is due back in a downtown Los Angeles courtroom Aug. 19 for a bail review hearing.