Local News in Brief : 2 Gang Members Face Trial in Officer’s Death

Two South-Central Los Angeles gang members were ordered Thursday to stand trial on charges that they killed a plainclothes policeman last summer in Sylmar.

San Fernando Municipal Judge Gregg Marcus ordered Louis Belvin Jr., 18, and Thomas Lee Mixon, 19, tried on murder charges in the June 22 killing of Los Angeles Police Officer James H. Pagliotti. In statements to police after Pagliotti was shot, the men said they belonged to a street gang and had gone to Sylmar to sell drugs when Pagliotti confronted them.

Pagliotti was fatally shot by Belvin, according to testimony during the preliminary hearing.

Mixon was charged with murder because his involvement in a criminal conspiracy to sell cocaine also makes him responsible for the killing, authorities said.

In addition to murder, Belvin and Mixon are charged with one count each of conspiracy to sell cocaine, selling cocaine and assault with a deadly weapon on a drug customer.

Belvin also was ordered tried on one count each of attempted murder and assault in the May 19 shooting of a friend, Jerry Kimbrough. Kimbrough was shot in the stomach and has recovered.

Belvin is being held without bail in County Jail. Mixon is being held in lieu of $500,000 bail in County Jail. Both are to be arraigned May 26 in San Fernando Superior Court.