Santa Ana : 3rd Suspect Arrested in Murder of Lawyer

A third suspect in the August killing of a Santa Ana lawyer has been arrested at his home in Anaheim, police said Friday.

Police initially thought that Timothy Shawn Stotler, 19, had fled the state after they obtained a search warrant charging him with the murder of Jessie M. Grimes. But Santa Ana homicide investigators told Anaheim police that Stotler was at 113 1/2 S. Kroeger St., and that he was arrested there at 5 p.m. Thursday, Santa Ana Police Sgt. Collie Provence said.

Members of the Anaheim police Crime Task Force arrived at the home and found Stotler “standing just inside the open door of the house,” Provence said. He said Stotler “started to run” when officers identified themselves but halted when ordered.

Stotler was booked into Orange County Jail on the warrant, which carried $500,000 bail, police said.

Grimes, 55, a retired U.S. Marine captain who practiced family law in Orange, was found dead Aug. 20 in an upstairs bedroom of his apartment in the 2200 block of North Broadway in Santa Ana. He had been shot three times in the upper body. Detectives also said that it appeared that another shot had been fired through the bedroom door before it was kicked in.

Investigators believe robbery was the motive for the shooting, but they have not disclosed what, if anything, was taken from Grimes’ apartment.

Police confiscated a .32-caliber Beretta handgun and a .22-caliber AR-7 rifle believed to have been used in the shooting, Provence said.

Michael William Grimes, 25, Jessie Grimes’ son, was arrested on suspicion of murder shortly afterward. He was later released, however, and detectives have said they do not believe that he was involved in the shooting.

Valerie L. Kalman, 19, and George R. Peterson, 28, were arrested Aug. 22 at the South Kroeger address and booked into Orange County Jail on suspicion of murder.