A crew of six men — five from the Phoenix area and another from Mexico, who prosecutors said was tied to the Sinaloa Cartel — all have been accused of participating in the sprawling murder plot that ultimately left brothers Edgar Berrelleza-Soto, 26, and Joel Mauricio Berrelleza, 35, both of Orange, and two other men dead.

Raul Gastellum Flores, 33, of Phoenix, is the only suspect so far to face a jury. He appeared inside a Santa Ana courtroom on Tuesday, the first day of his trial on four counts of murder for what Orange County prosecutors said was his part in the plot.

Wearing a blue suit and black glasses, his long hair pulled back in a bun, Flores sat quietly next to his attorney, listening as Deputy District Attorney Harris Siddiq sketched out what he believed to be Flores’ involvement in the killings.

Siddiq accused Flores of agreeing to help Rosario Roman-Lopez, a former partner of the Berrelleza brothers in a cross-border drug smuggling operation, in a plot to kidnap and kill the brothers over what Roman-Lopez said was their failure to pay him back for hiring a coyote.

Siddiq said Roman-Lopez promised to pay Flores just $2,000 to take part in the plan.

“He knew this was dangerous,” Siddiq said of Flores. “But he signed right up.”

Flores is on trial after his 2018 arrest in Oklahoma by U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agents investigating a separate drug trafficking operation. While he was in custody, a detective with the Orange Police Department traveled to Oklahoma to interview him.

Siddiq said that in a series of interviews, Flores admitted to being part of the crew that ambushed the Berrelleza brothers and two other victims, Antonio Medina, 19, of Glendale, Arizona and Fernando Meza, 20 of Phoenix.

Berrelleza-Soto was in the drivers seat of his GMC SUV, parked in his driveway on East Oakmont Avenue on Nov. 9, 2015, with Media and Meza in the back. Siddiq said Flores and two other men suddenly drove up in a vehicle that blocked the GMC.

Flores and another man, both armed with guns, and a third armed with a knife, threatened the trio in the GMC, and attempted to bind their hands with duct tape. Within minutes, all three victims would be dead: Berrelleza-Soto and Medina died after being shot in their heads, while Meza, injured both from gunshots and stabs from the knife, ultimately died from smoke inhalation, Siddiq said.

In the interview with the detectives, Flores admitted to dousing the bodies with gasoline, then lighting them on fire with a cigarette lighter. A video from a nearby porch camera captured Flores jumping out of the GMC as it caught fire, then running to a car waiting just behind.

Later, Roman-Lopez and other members of the crew kidnapped Joel Berrelleza, holding him in another vehicle they were driving toward Fontana.

Siddiq said when Joel Berrelleza asked Roman-Lopez for a cigarette, Roman-Lopez told him “no” then shot him three times point blank inside the car. Roman-Lopez then filmed with his cell phone as the crew taunted Berrelleza as he died from the gunshots, video that was played for the jury in court Tuesday.

Attorneys said Roman-Lopez was killed in Mexico months after the Southern California murders.

Flores has not been accused of firing a weapon during the Oakmont Avenue killings. Prosecutors instead leaned on his participating in what they said was a conspiracy to kidnap and kill the victims.

Cameron Talley, an attorney for Flores, disputed whether Flores knew Roman-Lopez intended to kill the Berrelleza brothers.

Talley did not give an opening statement Tuesday. He said Flores intended to testify in his own defense during the trial.

Flores was one of three men arrested who were accused of being part of the crew. The others were Alejandro Guerrero Ruiz of Orange and Angel De Jesus Barreras of Ontario.

Ruiz took a deal in 2020, agreeing to plead guilty to robbery if prosecutors dropped the murder charges against him. Siddiq said Ruiz was a street-level dealer for the Berrelleza brothers at the time and acted as a scout for the rest of the crew, telling them how much money the brothers had on them at the time and discussing their locations.

Barreras continues to face murder charges in the case, but he has not faced a jury yet. His case was sealed, according to court records.

The two final suspects in the case, Alex Corral and Juan Castro, have not yet been arrested.

Shackled and wearing a green jail jumpsuit indicating he has been isolated from the general population at the West Valley Detention Center in Rancho Cucamonga, Christopher Bingham appeared before Judge Colin Bilash in San Bernardino Superior Court.

Bingham, 45, is charged with 10 felony counts, including grand theft of a Remington 870 shotgun — reportedly stolen from the Sheriff’s Department — and possession of a machine gun, a short-barreled AR-15 assault rifle, two explosive devices and four gun silencers. He is being held on $240,000 bail and was ordered to return to court April 18 for a preliminary hearing.

Each charge against Bingham includes a gang enhancement alleging the crimes were committed “for the benefit of, at the direction of, and in association with a criminal street gang,” in this case, the Mongols outlaw motorcycle gang.

Bingham, an 18-year veteran of the Sheriff’s Department, was arrested on Thursday, April 4, at his home in Twentynine Palms, where a March 23 raid by sheriff’s investigators yielded 160 firearms, explosive devices and Mongols paraphernalia, including a fully-patched leather vest, according to the Sheriff’s Department and sources close to the investigation.

Clutching a white motorcycle helmet as he left the San Bernardino Justice Center following Tuesday’s proceedings, Bingham’s attorney, Jeff G. Moore, declined to comment, other than to say, “The preliminary hearing should be interesting.”

Asked to elaborate, Moore, a former Riverside County prosecutor, said, “I guess we’ll have to wait and see.”

Background checks

The criminal case against Bingham isn’t his first brush with trouble from his own department.

In late 2019 or early 2020, Bingham came under suspicion for improperly using the California Law Enforcement Telecommunications System, or CLETS, to conduct criminal background checks. The Sheriff’s Department referred the case to the District Attorney’s Office to potential charges, but county prosecutors turned the case down in January 2020 due to insufficient evidence, district attorney’s spokesperson Jacquelyn Rodriguez said Tuesday.

Rodriguez could not confirm whether Bingham had allegedly misused the CLETS database to conduct criminal background checks on customers at his former gun shop in Twentynine Palms, O’Three Tactical.

O’Three Tactical gun shop

Bingham, a former Marine, operated O’Three Tactical from 2015 through 2021 near the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center, on Twentynine Palms Highway, east of Adobe Road.

With its proximity to the military base, O’Three Tactical was popular with Marines and law enforcement officers from as far away as Downey and Newport Beach, according to a former employee who asked to not be identified.

The employee, who described Bingham as a dirt bike enthusiast who rode a Kawasaki motorcycle and drove a Jeep, said the gun shop sold firearms and magazines to and did repairs for the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department as well as other agencies.

“Everything we did was legit,” the employee said. “It was really by the book. … (Bingham) was teaching us the right way. Everything was certified.”

Bingham would kick people out of the shop for wearing the “colors” of an illegal motorcycle gang or smelling like weed, and also participated in fund-raisers with the Sheriff’s Department and conducted gun raffles, said the former employee, who left in 2017 and described Bingham’s arrest as “off-putting.”

Bingham shuttered O’Three Tactical on June 23, 2021.

“After being unable to maintain any kind of inventory and hemmoraging (sic) my own personal finances over the last year trying to keep our doors open, O’Three Tactical will be permanently closing its doors,” Bingham said earlier that June in a post on the gun shop’s Facebook page.

Origins of raid

The March 23 raid on Bingham’s home stemmed from an ongoing sheriff’s investigation into his activities that began in January and culminated with his arrest earlier that day on the westbound 10 Freeway in Beaumont. A source close to the investigation said Bingham and another man were riding Harley-Davidsons when a California Highway Patrol officer pulled them over for speeding.

The man Bingham was riding with was wearing a black leather vest with Mongols patches, according to the source.

The CHP officer, according to the source, seized from Bingham an unregistered Glock 9 mm handgun he had in his possession, and Bingham identified himself as law enforcement. A sheriff’s deputy who had followed Bingham and his friend from Yucca Valley arrested Bingham and booked him on suspicion of being a gang member carrying a loaded firearm. Bingham subsequently was released from custody.

A Sheriff’s Department news release said Bingham was riding with two other “outlaw motorcycle gang” members — not one — at the time of his first arrest.

Outlaw motorcycle gangs

The U.S. Department of Justice lists the Mongols among a group of outlaw motorcycle gangs, or OMGs, “whose members use their motorcycle clubs as conduits for criminal enterprises.” The Justice Department characterizes them as “highly structured criminal organizations whose members engage in criminal activities such as violent crime, weapons trafficking, and drug trafficking.”

The United States is home to more than 300 active outlaw motorcycle gangs ranging in size from single chapters with five or six members to hundreds of chapters with thousands of members, according to the Justice Department.

And the outlaw motorcycle gangs often clash, typically triggering law enforcement investigations.

Last month, authorities in Stanislaus County arrested four men and seized drugs, guns and bomb-making materials as part of a months-long investigation into outlaw motorcycle clubs. The investigation began last year amid violent altercations between dozens of members of the Hells Angels, Mongols and Salida Nomads.

The 27-year-old is scheduled to be arraigned May 2 on two counts of domestic battery and a count each of spousal battery, false imprisonment and assault at the Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center in Los Angeles, court records show.

An attorney for Urías didn’t immediately respond to an email seeking comment on the charges.

The charges were filed with the court on Monday, said Ivor Pine, deputy director of communications for Los Angeles City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto.

In January, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office declined to file a felony case against Urías and instead referred the matter to the Los Angeles City Attorney’s Office for consideration of whether a misdemeanor case was warranted.

Urías, who became a free agent at the end of the 2023 season, was arrested Sept. 3 by police in Exposition Park following a much-publicized soccer match between LAFC and Inter Miami — featuring star Lionel Messi — at BMO Stadium. He posted bond and was released the next day.

The alleged victim in the case was Urías’ wife, according to a District Attorney’s Office charge evaluation worksheet in January.

“They engaged in an argument whereby the defendant pushed the victim against a fence and pulled her by the hair or shoulders,” according to the document. “Neither the victim’s injuries nor the defendant’s criminal history justify a felony filing. The case is accordingly referred to the city attorney for misdemeanor filing consideration.”

Urías was placed on administrative leave by Major League Baseball days after his arrest, and the Dodgers issued a statement saying the team was cooperating fully with the investigation.

“The Dodgers take all allegations of the kind in this case very seriously, and we do not condone or excuse any acts of domestic violence,” the team said.

MLB said in a statement Tuesday that its investigation is ongoing but declined to comment further.

A conviction on the spousal battery, domestic battery or false imprisonment means up to a year in county jail or a fine or both jail time and fine, according to Pine.

The assault charge carries a sentence of up to six months in county jail or a fine of up to $1,000 or both, he said.

The fine for spousal battery is up to $6,000, up to $2,000 for domestic battery and up to $1,000 for false imprisonment, Pine said.

Urías was 11-8 during the 2023 season with a 4.60 earned-run average. He began his Major League Baseball career with the Dodgers in 2016, and has a lifetime record of 60-25 with a 3.11 ERA.

He was suspended for 20 games in 2019 by MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred for an incident in the parking lot of the Beverly Center on May 13 of that year. TMZ reported that a witness called police saying that Urías was arguing with a woman and shoved her to the ground. Officers responded to the scene and spoke with the woman, who denied anything physical took place, insisting it was nothing more than a heated argument.

Urías was arrested on suspicion of misdemeanor domestic battery in that incident, but no charges were filed.

Southern California News Group Staff writer Ruby Gonzales and The Associated Press contributed to this report

But to his horror, the vintage sedan rolled down the ramp and into about 20 feet of water, becoming fully submerged.

“He was very emotional,” Canyon Lake Fire Chief Jeff LaTendresse said.

The Fire Department received a call from the property owners association just before 8 a.m. Security workers had noticed an oily sheen near the eastport launch ramp and reviewed surveillance recordings for clues. They saw the Packard disappear completely from view beneath the surface, LaTendresse said.

Unaware that no one was inside, Canyon Lake firefighters, noticing bubbles as well as oil, requested assistance from Cal Fire/Riverside County Fire Department and the Riverside County sheriff’s dive team.

The car’s owner showed up around 8:20 a.m. and told them that the car was unoccupied, LaTendresse said. It was towed from the lake after several hours. Riverside County environmental health workers were called to the lake to handle the clean-up.

The owner could not be reached for comment, but a person who specializes in classic cars said the mishap had to have shocked him.

“You have a mini heart attack. Definitely a pride and joy,” said Pedro Gonzalez, the automotive curator at Carey’s Fine Automobiles in San Bernardino.

He estimated the value before the submersion at $25,000 to $40,000, depending on how much of the car remained original.

Gonzalez said he wasn’t sure how the car could have gotten loose. He said most cars from the 1930s have pull-handle parking brakes. The car could be difficult to save, noting the interior being saturated with water. The wiring — whether it was original or current material — could also be a factor, Gonzalez said.

“It was like his baby,” LaTendresse said.

The children, eight months old and a 9-year-old, either fell or were thrown out of a moving vehicle, said Luis Quintero, a California Highway Patrol officer and spokesman. A 911 caller told authorities that a black sedan was seen in the area where the girls were found. The older child suffered moderate injuries.

About 30 minutes later, in Redondo Beach, a dark-colored Porsche Cayenne SUV hit 100 mph before crashing into a tree on Pacific Coast Highway at Vincent Street, authorities said, killing the sole occupant, the mother, Danielle Cherakiyah Johnson, 34.

Law enforcement learned about the tragedies over time.

The girls were found abandoned about 4:30 a.m. on the freeway near Centinela Avenue, the sedan crashed, and then, around 7:30 a.m., Jaelen Allen Chaney, 29, was found unresponsive at the apartment building in the 6200 block of Variel Avenue and pronounced dead, Los Angeles police Officer Kevin Terzes said.

A man who lived next door to the family of four and discovered Chaney’s body told NBC Los Angeles reporters that he “saw two legs that were on the floor, so I called 911 and said, ‘Something bad has happened here.’”

“I went outside of our unit, and I saw blood on the floor,” the neighbor, Richard Berglund said. “I started calling in there and said, ‘Hello? Hello? Is anybody there?’ And nobody answered.”

A knife with forensic evidence was found at the scene.

The Coroner’s Office on Tuesday identified the men as Fontana residents Mauricio Juarez, 38, and Guillermo Morales, 41.

Someone reported seeing what they thought was an abandoned white sedan in a brushy area bordered by homes and the Oak Quarry Golf Club around 3:15 p.m. Monday. Deputies found the car, which had damage from an apparent collision, said Sgt. Wenndy Brito-Gonzalez, a sheriff’s spokeswoman. They later discovered two men who were pronounced dead at the scene.

It was unclear how long the car had been there and whether the car had collided with another.

“The circumstances surrounding the incident are currently under investigation,” Brito-Gonzalez said.

The collision involving the pedestrian happened between 3:15 a.m. and 7 a.m. on the shoulder of Cajalco Road east of Decker Road in the unincorporated Riverside County community of Mead Valley, west of Perris. The CHP was called around 7:40 a.m.

Investigators were able to narrow the window of when the man was hit because a family member said he was dropped off at Cajalco Road and Harvill Avenue, about a mile away from the collision site, at 3 a.m., said Officer Javier Navarro, a CHP spokesman.

The Riverside County Sheriff’s Department Coroner’s Office on Tuesday identified the victim as Alfredo Aparicio.

Navarro said investigators are looking for clues that will lead to the identification of the car and its driver and asked anyone with information to call 951-637-8000.

Shant Soghomonian, 35, who was previously of Northridge, entered the building on Friday and went to Sanders’ third-floor office where security video shows him spraying a liquid on the door and setting it afire, officials said.

The building’s interior suffered some damage from the fire and sprinklers that doused the area with water, but no one was hurt.

Sanders, an independent, was not in the office.

Senator Bernie Sanders joins striking workers at Hotel Figueroa in downtown L.A.

Soghomonian was arrested Sunday on a charge of using fire to damage a building used in interstate commerce, according to a statement from Nikolas Kerest, the U.S. attorney for Vermont.

The motive remained unclear.

The crime carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000.

The case was investigated by police departments in Burlington, Shelburne and Williston; Vermont State Police; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; and U.S. Capitol Police, officials said.

Around 4:30 a.m., officers were called for a medical emergency along the northbound 405 Freeway near the Sepulveda Boulevard/Howard Hughes Parkway exit, said California Highway Patrol Officer Frank Salas. An infant girl believed to be 5 or 6 months old was lying in the roadway and a 9-year-old girl was found on the right shoulder.

The infant had suffered serious trauma injuries and was pronounced dead at the scene, Salas said, though information on how she’d sustained the injuries was not immediately available.

The young girl had moderate injuries and was taken to a hospital.

A 911 caller told authorities that a black sedan was seen in the area where the girls were found, Salas said, though it was not clear if the girls came from that black sedan.

Two northbound freeway lanes were blocked throughout the morning rush hour while CHP officials investigated the situation.

On Monday afternoon, the Los Angeles Police Department confirmed it was investigating a possible link between the discovery of the girls on the freeway to an overnight slaying in Woodland Hills and a subsequent fatal crash in Redondo Beach.

The LAPD responded to a Woodland Hills apartment building in the 6200 block of Variel Avenue around 7:35 a.m. Monday in response to a report of an unresponsive man in his 30s. Paramedics pronounced the man dead at the scene.

No other details were immediately available.

“While conducting their investigation, homicide detectives learned of two additional incidents that occurred earlier in the morning, one on the 405 Freeway involving two young children and a second in Redondo Beach involving a traffic collision,” according to the LAPD. “At this time, Valley Bureau Homicide detectives are working with the California Highway Patrol on the incident involving the two children and believe it is connected to the Topanga (Woodland Hills) homicide scene.

“They are also collaborating with the Redondo Beach Police Department and the Los Angeles County (Medical Examiner) to determine if that scene is related to the homicide on Variel.”

The Redondo Beach fatal crash involved a black sedan that crashed into a tree, killing the female driver, around 5 a.m. Monday on Pacific Coast Highway and Vincent Street.

Law enforcement sources quoted in broadcast reports said a female may have fatally stabbed the man at the Woodland Hills apartment building as part of a domestic dispute, then fled with the two children, eventually leaving them on the 405 Freeway and driving off. The woman subsequently crashed her black sedan in Redondo Beach and died, the broadcast reports said. The female and the man were married, CBS Los Angeles reported.

Anyone with information on the case was urged to call the CHP Southern Division Major Crimes office at 323-644-9550, or the CHP Traffic Management Center at 323-259-3200.

Southern California News Group staff writer Hunter Lee contributed to this story.

NEW YORK — Actor Jonathan Majors has been ordered to complete a yearlong counseling program but avoided jail time Monday for assaulting his ex-girlfriend in a high-profile case that derailed the once-promising star’s career.

The 34-year-old star of “Creed III” and other films had faced up to a year behind bars after he was convicted of misdemeanor assault by a Manhattan jury in December.

In court Monday, Judge Michael Gaffey sentenced Majors to conditional discharge after noting that both sides in the case agreed the charges did not warrant jail time, given the actor was a first time offender with no prior criminal record.

He said Majors must complete a 52-week, in-person batterer’s intervention program in Los Angeles, where the actor lives. He also has to continue with the mental health therapy his lawyers say he’s been participating in. Majors faces a year in jail if found in violation of the terms, which also included a no contact order with his former girlfriend, Grace Jabbari.

Majors, dressed in all black and accompanied by his girlfriend, actor Meagan Good, declined to address the court and left the courthouse without speaking to reporters.

His lawyer, Priya Chaudhry, said the actor did not want to make any public statement that Jabbari could use against him in the civil suit she’s filed against the actor.

Majors, she added, is “committed to growing as a person” and will complete any court-mandated programs “with an open heart” even as he maintains his innocence and plans to appeal.

“He’s lost his whole career,” Chaudhry said in court. “This has been the most challenging year of his life.”

But Jabbari, fighting back tears as she addressed the court, said Majors refuses to acknowledge his guilt and remains a danger to those around him.

“He’s not sorry. He has not accepted responsibility, ” she said. “He will do this again and he will hurt other women. He believes he is above the law.”

Jabbari said Majors had made her believe the two were in a loving relationship, but, in reality, he isolated her from the rest of the world and cut her off from family and friends.

“I was so emotionally dependent on him,” she said. “I became a different person around him — small, scared and vulnerable.”

Rather than acknowledge his actions, Majors has been openly critical of the court proceedings, launching a “high-powered PR campaign” that included a nationally televised interview, added Assistant District Attorney Kelli Galloway as she argued for a sentence of violence counseling for Majors.

Following the December guilty verdict, Majors was immediately dropped by Marvel Studios, which had cast him as Kang the Conqueror, a role envisioned as the main villain in the entertainment empire’s movies and television shows for years to come.

The conviction stemmed from an altercation last March in which Jabbari accused him of attacking her in the backseat of a chauffeured car, saying he hit her head with his open hand, twisted her arm behind her back and squeezed her middle finger until it fractured.

Majors claimed the 31-year-old British dancer was the aggressor, flying into a jealous rage after reading a text message from another woman on his phone. He maintained he was only trying to regain his phone and get away from Jabbari safely.

Majors had hoped his two-week criminal trial would vindicate him. In a television interview shortly after his conviction, he said he deserves a second chance.

But the California native and Yale University graduate still faces Jabbari’s civil suit, which she filed last month in Manhattan federal court. In the suit, Jabbari accuses Majors of assault, battery, defamation and inflicting emotional distress, claiming he subjected her to escalating incidents of physical and verbal abuse during their relationship. The two met in 2021 on the set of Marvel’s “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania,” in which Majors played Kang.

Majors’ lawyers have declined to respond to the claims, saying only that they are preparing to file counterclaims against Jabbari.

The actor had his breakthrough role in 2019’s “The Last Black Man in San Francisco.” He also starred in the HBO horror series “Lovecraft Country,” which earned him an Emmy nomination, and as the nemesis to fictional boxing champ Adonis Creed in the blockbuster “Creed III.”

As for Marvel, a looming question remains whether the studio will recast the role of Kang or pivot in a new direction.

Majors’ departure was among a recent series of high-profile setbacks for the vaunted superhero factory, which has earned an unprecedented $30 billion worldwide from 33 films.

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Follow Philip Marcelo at twitter.com/philmarcelo