Police Not Ready to Charge 4 in Slaying

Two men and two women arrested after driving into Riverside with a man’s body in the back of one of their two vehicles will not immediately be charged in his death, police said Thursday.

“We’re not ready to charge them at this time,” said Capt. Dan Johnson, a spokesman for the Huntington Beach Police Department, citing insufficient evidence. “They’re still suspects in the murder investigation, but at this point we feel it’s premature to charge them.”

Billy Johnson, 40, and Suzanne Miller, 24, both of Huntington Beach, and Jason Karr, 39, and Erin Brooks, 19, both of Costa Mesa, were arrested late Tuesday after police pulled them over at Spruce Street near Atlanta Avenue in Riverside and found a wrapped body hidden under a pile of wood in the bed of a pickup. Two suspects were in the pickup and two were in a car.

On Thursday, police identified the dead man as Cory Lamons, 26, of Laguna Niguel, who Capt. Johnson said appeared to have been killed. A spokesman for the Orange County coroner’s office, however, said an autopsy had not determined the cause of death and that further tests were planned.

“We will continue the investigation,” Capt. Johnson said.

Before making the grisly discovery, Capt. Johnson said, undercover officers had followed the four for five hours because there were arrest warrants out for Billy Johnson and Miller on suspicion of possessing controlled substances with the intention to sell. Capt. Johnson said Karr was also wanted on suspicion of violating parole. In addition, the captain said, the two men are members of a white supremacist organization.

An attorney representing Billy Johnson, who was driving the truck when it was stopped, said Thursday that his client was unaware of the body in back and, in fact, didn’t learn of it until after his arrest. “It wasn’t his truck,” Rey Ochoa said. “It was a borrowed truck that somebody asked him to drive and, basically, he did.”

Ochoa also denied that Billy Johnson is a member of a white supremacist organization. “No way,” he said, “that’s not true. They’re trying to build a straw man.”

By late Thursday, only Brooks had been released, Capt. Johnson said. The other three, he said, remained at Orange County Jail on their respective arrest warrants with bail set at $1 million each.