Pair Accused of Preying on Check Firms

Los Angeles authorities have filed 16 felony charges, including one for murder, against two gang members accused in a string of sophisticated kidnap-robberies of employees or owners of San Fernando Valley check-cashing companies.

Donald Lee Williams, 24, and Anthony Christopher, 23, both of South-Central Los Angeles, are scheduled to be arraigned Monday, officials said Friday.

Williams and Christopher have been held without bail since their arrest March 15 on suspicion of conspiracy to commit robbery.

Police Watched Suspects

Police had watched the two men follow an employee of a Reseda check-cashing company for two days, police said. Officers then moved in to make the arrests before a robbery occurred.

Since the arrests, 15 more felony charges have been filed against Williams and Christopher after detectives linked them to three robberies of check-cashing company employees in the previous four months, Detective Al Ferrand said.

An investigation is continuing of Williams, Christopher and other members of a street gang and their possible involvement in six robberies in Sylmar, San Fernando, Van Nuys, North Hollywood and near downtown, he said.

“A lot of thought and planning went into these crimes,” Ferrand said. “They weren’t amateurs. They were vicious. One victim was forced to turn $40,000 over to them in order to see her children again.”

Ferrand said Williams and Christopher used the same method in the robberies: The pair would follow employees or owners of check-cashing companies to learn their routine movements. The robbers would then steal a van or car and use it to force the victim off the road or stage a fake accident to stop them.

Companions Abducted

Ferrand said Williams and Christopher either forced the victims at gunpoint to return to their offices for money, or kidnaped and held their companions until the victims returned with money. Ferrand said more than $100,000 was taken in the holdups.

Ferrand said a Dec. 3 robbery attempt by Williams, Christopher and a third man, not yet identified, ended in the murder of Albert Morales, owner of a Sylmar check-cashing company.

Morales and his wife, Rose, were driving home when a stolen van pulled in front of them and a car stopped close behind them on Paddock Street in Sylmar, police said. One man tried to pull Rose Morales from the car, but Albert Morales got out first and was shot to death during a struggle with one of the robbers. The three men fled, leaving Rose Morales behind.

Followed Home

In a case involving two children, police said Dora Rodriguez, a cashier at a North Hollywood check-cashing company, was followed to her Sun Valley home Jan. 14 by two men who approached her car and pulled out her two young sons. Police said one man took the boys away in a van while the other escorted her to the business and forced her to give him the firm’s cash. The boys were later released unharmed.

According to court documents, Williams and Christopher each face once count of murder and attempted murder, four counts of kidnaping, four counts of robbery, three counts of attempted robbery, one count of attempted kidnaping, one count of conspiracy and one count of burglary.