Voice of OC (https://voiceofoc.org/tag/jailhouse-snitch-scandal/)
Scott Evans Dekraai, who committed the worst mass shooting in Orange County history at a Seal Beach beauty salon in 2011, was sentenced Friday to eight consecutive life terms in state prison without the possibility of parole, one term for each of his eight victims.
Stephen G. Larson and his law firm have been paid at least $140,000 in taxpayer funds, but did not file the two reports he promised for the first half of this year. He said they weren’t required by his contract and his time was better spent working on the informant issues.
Former Brea Mayor Brett Murdock, a Democrat, has joined the 2018 race for District Attorney, making him the third candidate.
The reforms were recommended as the result of an ongoing scandal in which jailhouse informants were illegally used and relevant evidence was not provided to defense attorneys.
Confessed mass murderer Scott Evans Dekraai will receive life in prison after Superior Court Judge Thomas Goethals Friday blocked him from receiving the death penalty.
In an official response to the Orange County Grand Jury’s June report, which called the jailhouse informant scandal a “myth,” District Attorney Tony Rackauckas agreed with most of the report’s findings, except for those which criticized his department for a lack of training protocols and procedure.
It’s one of several questions Superior Court Judge Thomas Goethals is considering before ruling Aug. 18 on whether or not confessed mass murderer Scott Evans Dekraai faces the death penalty
Superior Court Judge Thomas Goethals will announce Friday if mass murderer Scott Evans Dekraai faces the death penalty in a case that upended at least six other criminal convictions, damaged the reputations of both the Orange County Sheriff’s Department and District Attorney’s Office and unveiled the “jailhouse snitch scandal.”
Attorneys gave their final arguments at a hearing Thursday, which addresses allegations by the defense that the failure by prosecutors and the Sheriff’s Department to turn over records in the past – and the potential that they still haven’t turned over everything – suggest Dekraai won’t receive a fair penalty trial and he should be spared the death penalty.
She testified she believes there was no widespread misuse of jailhouse informants by her department, but sheriff’s deputies moved confidential informants in the jails to elicit incriminating statements from defendants over the course of years.