‘Woman in Distress,’ 3 Others Held : Men Were Lured to Robbery Trap

A woman who police say lured robbery targets to a Van Nuys apartment complex by posing as a woman in distress was ordered to stand trial Friday on robbery and kidnaping charges.

Two men accused of working with her were ordered to stand trial on robbery and kidnaping charges. And a third alleged conspirator was ordered held on a robbery charge.

After a two-hour preliminary hearing, San Fernando Municipal Judge Malcolm H. Mackey ordered Kelly Lynn Fisher, 20; Jack Kermit Alexander, 32; Danny Lavelle, 21; and Zachary Lewis Cook, 33, held for trial.

Los Angeles police suspect the four of committing one to five robberies a day in Van Nuys over a two-month period, which ended when the four were arrested last month, Officer Robert Vanina said.

Vanina said Fisher lured victims by flagging down male motorists on Sepulveda Boulevard and asking for help. She then lured them to the parking lot of the apartment complex, which Vanina said was frequented by transients.

Most of the victims did not report the crimes because they were embarrassed, police said.

The charges against the four stem from two incidents in December and January. In one of them, the ruse was not used.

Fisher, Alexander and Lavelle face one count each of kidnaping, kidnaping for the purpose of robbery and robbery in the abduction of Gary Lee Williams, 27, from a Sepulveda gas station Dec. 18.

The Lancaster man testified Friday that he was hit on the back of the head shortly after midnight while stopped for gas.

Williams identified Fisher, Alexander and Lavelle as the assailants who pushed him into the driver’s seat of his car and ordered him to drive to an apartment complex in the 8100 block of Langdon Avenue in Van Nuys.

There, he said, the three beat him, robbed him of about $400 and threatened to kill him. They then fled on foot, he said. Williams was treated for cuts and bruises at Panorama Community Hospital, Vanina said.

Fisher, Alexander and Cook face one count each of robbery in the Jan. 7 robbery of Martin Bresin of Encino.

Bresin, 42, a movie special-effects expert, testified that he was driving home from work at a movie location in Saugus about 2 a.m. when Fisher waved him over at Sepulveda and Roscoe boulevards. He said she claimed she was being followed and asked to be driven to the apartment on Langdon, Bresin testified. At the apartment, she took Bresin’s keys out of the ignition and began screaming, Bresin testified.

Bresin said Cook and Alexander then robbed him at knifepoint of a gold chain, a diamond ring, a watch, his cellular car phone and a small amount of cash.

Police arrested Fisher on Jan. 9, Alexander on Jan. 13, Cook on Jan. 14 and Lavelle on Jan. 21, Vanina said. Police would not disclose what led to the arrests.

If convicted, Fisher, Alexander and Lavelle face a maximum sentence of life in prison with the possibility of parole, Deputy Dist. Atty. Meredith Rust said. Cook faces a maximum of six years in jail, she said.

Alexander is also accused of using a metal object as a deadly weapon, which carries a penalty of an extra year in jail, Rust said.