3 Arrested in 1978 Killing of Suspected Drug Dealer

Three men, including an elementary school teacher, have been arrested in the 12-year-old slaying of a North Hollywood drug dealer after a person with new evidence in the case came forward, Los Angeles police said Tuesday.

Police identified the men as Jose Aleman, 40, a teacher at Lorena Street School, and Daniel Ceniceros, 40, a salesman, both of Los Angeles, and George Jesse Rodriquez, 42, a day laborer from Texas.

Aleman was arrested Tuesday at the elementary school near downtown Los Angeles where he teaches second grade. He has worked there six years.

“He appeared surprised but did not speak,” Detective Rick Swanston said.

Ceniceros was arrested at his home Tuesday; Rodriquez was arrested a day earlier at his home in Katy, a suburb of Houston. The two Los Angeles men were being held without bail in the West Valley Division Jail.

All three men had been arrested in November, 1978, after the body of Don Smith was found in a car parked in Tarzana. Police said the three were acquainted with Smith but they were later released when prosecutors reviewed the case and said there was not enough evidence to charge them with murder.

Swanston said that a person with key information about the case recently came forward and that police now believe they have the evidence to charge the three. He declined to discuss the new evidence but said the case is expected to be presented today to the Los Angeles County district attorney for the filing of charges.

The motive for the slaying is believed to have been a dispute over a drug deal, Swanston said. Smith, who police believe was a drug dealer, was kidnaped from his North Hollywood home by three men and taken to an unknown location, where he was beaten to death. His body was later found in the trunk of his car, which police found abandoned in the 5300 block of Shirley Avenue.

Swanston said he did not know why the informant waited 12 years to come forward. He said the person is not in jail or seeking anything in return from authorities.

Other details of the case were unavailable Tuesday because the detective assigned to the investigation since 1982 was unreachable in Texas. Swanston said in Los Angeles that investigators had not yet begun to check on what the men had been doing in the 12 years since the slaying.

Los Angeles Unified School District officials said Aleman was escorted from his class by police but not handcuffed until he was placed in a police car. District officials declined to provide details of Aleman’s teaching career.