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Pallbearer Suspected in Murder Caught at Funeral

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From a Times Staff Writer

A Kern County sheriff’s deputy helped Pomona police catch a murder suspect Wednesday after he read in an obituary that the man was to be a pallbearer at a funeral.

After staking out a Bakersfield cemetery, deputies and police arrested Gustavo Gilbert Orsono, 24. Police say he shot and killed a man with a sawed-off shotgun in Pomona in February 2000.

Orsono, a member of a local gang, killed the former gang member after the two had a fight in which the victim disparaged Orsono’s gang, police said.

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Kern County sheriff’s deputies had been on the lookout for Orsono when a deputy read that he would be at a funeral Wednesday.

Deputies and police officers went to the Green Lawn Southwest Cemetery at 10 a.m. and took Orsono into custody without incident, officials said.

He was questioned in Kern County and then driven to Pomona for booking into Los Angeles County Jail. He is being held on $2-million bail.

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