Man to Be Charged 2nd Time in ’82 Glendale Motel Slaying
A 32-year-old Encino man is to be arraigned today in Los Angeles Municipal Court on charges that he murdered one man and attempted to kill another in a drug-related shoot-out in a Glendale motel more than three years ago.
Roberto Lopez will be charged with killing Oscar Orozco, 28, of Burbank and attempting to kill Julian Perez, 27, of Glendale, Deputy District Atty. Jeff Jonas said.
Lopez was arrested and charged with murder after the February, 1982, shooting, but the case was dismissed because of legal errors at a preliminary hearing. A Pasadena Superior Court judge ruled that the Glendale Municipal Court commissioner who originally heard the case had not allowed Lopez’s attorney to cross-examine a witness.
Jonas said that Lopez disappeared soon afterward, but was arrested in 1983 and charged with the double murder of a husband and wife in a drug-related incident in Hollywood. He is now in the County Jail awaiting trail in that case, Jonas said.
The prosecutor said the new charges in the Glendale shooting are based both on the original evidence and evidence that has since been found.
More to Read
Start your day right
Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
