BELL : Man Faces Murder Counts in 3 Crosswalk Deaths
Second-degree murder charges were filed Monday against a Cuban immigrant who allegedly stole a neighbor’s car, then hit and killed three East Los Angeles Community College students in a crosswalk.
Carlos Manuel Ruiz De La Ville, 31, of Bell Gardens, was being held without bail pending arraignment June 5 in Huntington Park Municipal Court, said Orange County Deputy Dist. Atty. Richard Ceballos. Besides three counts of second-degree murder, the defendant is charged with one count each of felony hit-and-run and grand theft auto and six misdemeanor counts of hit-and-run, Ceballos said.
De La Ville was arrested Thursday after the three young women were killed and a fourth was injured in a crosswalk at Gage and Woodward avenues in Bell.
Norma A. De La Cruz, 21; Marguerite Del Toro, 18, and Maria G. Enriquez, 18, had just gotten off a bus and planned to catch another bus en route to class when they were struck by a Chevrolet Lumina shortly before 7 a.m.
De La Ville allegedly stole the sedan from a neighbor in Bell Gardens less than an hour before the crash.
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