A Los Angeles man pleaded not guilty on Monday, Feb. 26, to fatally shooting three homeless men in Los Angeles as they slept and slaying a San Dimas man who he is accused of following home and robbing.
Jerrid Joseph Powell, 33, faces four counts of murder, one count of residential robbery and one count of being a felon with a firearm.
If convicted as charged, he could be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Powell returns to court April 24, said Pamela Johnson, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office.
The shootings happened from Nov. 26 to Nov. 29.
Jose Bolanos, 37, was sleeping on a couch behind a building near 110th Street and Vermont Avenue in Westmont when he was shot at 3:10 a.m. on Nov. 26, LAPD officials said. A day later, Mark Diggs, 62, was charging his phone and fell asleep in the 600 block of Mateo Street in downtown Los Angeles when a man shot him around 4:45 a.m.
The following day, Nicholas Simbolon, 42, was trailed from an electric-vehicle charging station in the 200 block of South Citrus Street in West Covina to his home in the 1800 block of Hawkbrook Drive in San Dimas, Sheriff Robert Luna has said. Powell entered the garage, robbed Simbolon, a project manager in the Los Angeles County Chief Executive Office, of several items, shot him and then left, authorities have said. Simbolon’s wife found him in his car.
The next day, Nov. 29, Shawn Alvarez, 52, was shot while sleeping on a sidewalk near Avenue 18 and Pasadena Avenue close to Lincoln Heights.
A possible motive had not been disclosed for the homicides of the three homeless men.
Sheriff’s investigators identified a car from surveillance video, which led to Powell, the sheriff has said. Powell was arrested early Nov. 30 for the San Dimas murder and robbery, authorities said, with a gun in the car.
That gun was tied to the three other fatal shootings, authorities said.
Powell was being held without bail at the Twin Towers…
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