Slain Suspect Linked to Beach Killings

Authorities Monday identified a Whittier man, who was fatally shot over the weekend by Inglewood police, as a suspect in the shooting deaths early last year of two Newbury Park men.

Robert Michael Robbins, 35, was wanted for questioning in the slayings of Francisco Orellana Miranda, 36, and Levi Angel Orellana, 32. The two men and a female companion were shot Jan. 26, 2003, while leaving Sycamore Cove State Beach, along Pacific Coast Highway south of Oxnard.

After nearly a year of searching for the gunman, Ventura County sheriff’s investigators recently received a tip that led them to Robbins, who was staying at a Motel 6 in the 5100 block of West Century Boulevard in Inglewood, said sheriff’s spokesman Eric Nishimoto.

With the assistance of several Inglewood officers, eight Ventura County sheriff’s detectives and deputies went to the motel Saturday to arrest Robbins.

About 7:30 p.m., Robbins left the motel and got into a vehicle. As officers approached to make the arrest, Robbins attempted to run over one of them and was shot a number of times by several Inglewood officers, according to department spokesman Lt. Mike McBride.

Robbins was taken to UCLA Medical Center in Westwood, where he was pronounced dead at 8:15 p.m., according to David Campbell, a spokesman for the Los Angeles County coroner’s office. An autopsy had not been performed by Monday afternoon, but Campbell said Robbins “received multiple gunshot wounds, including one in the head.”

The officers who fired on Robbins have been placed on paid administrative leave, standard practice in officer-involved shootings. McBride said there would be three investigations of the incident: by the department’s internal affairs division, its homicide bureau and the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office.

Nishimoto declined to discuss any link Robbins may have had to last January’s shooting victims or a possible motive for the homicides.

“We can’t confirm ... whether it was random or targeted,” Nishimoto said. “We really can’t say anything right now.”

Silvia Vasquez, Miranda’s girlfriend, earlier had said the couple and their friend Orellana had spent the day at the beach and were walking back to their car when they were shot by a stranger who spoke with a Southern accent.

The three were spotted on the side of the road by a passing motorist. Miranda was dead at the scene with gunshot wounds to the chest; Orellana had been shot in the abdomen and died shortly after arriving at an Oxnard hospital. Vasquez was hospitalized for several weeks with injuries.

Speaking at a news conference nine months ago to announce a $10,000 reward for information leading to the gunman, the Newbury Park woman, a housekeeper from El Salvador, said, “This has affected me very deeply. I need and want justice to be done, because I lost someone who I loved very deeply.”

Miranda, originally from Honduras, had worked as a maintenance man. Orellana, from El Salvador, had worked as a gardener.

Vasquez said a white male, whom sheriff’s officials originally described as 160 pounds and in his late 20s or early 30s, had been sitting on a bench near the beach and then approached Miranda and asked for two cigarettes. As the three friends walked along an embankment to their car a short time later, the man opened fire, authorities said.

Vasquez said she was holding hands with Miranda at the time and felt him drop at her side an instant before she was shot from behind and fell backward. She said she remembered the gunman standing over her and shooting again.

Nishimoto said it has not been determined whether the tip that prompted the attempted arrest of Robbins would qualify for all or part of the $10,000 reward.

Robbins’ death did not conclude the double-homicide investigation, which continues. “The case is certainly not closed,” Nishimoto said.

Times staff writer Sandra Murillo contributed to this report.