Higher Bail Amount Set in Slaying

Authorities Wednesday rearrested and significantly increased bail for a veteran firefighter accused of killing a female acquaintance, saying he was a flight risk.

David Jaime Del Toro, a 23-year Los Angeles City Fire Department veteran, turned himself in at Parker Center and after booking made his first court appearance.

Dressed in a gray T-shirt and jeans, Del Toro looked on as prosecutors asked Los Angeles County Superior Court Commissioner James N. Bianco to increase bail in his case to $5 million. Bianco agreed, but the amount may change depending on the outcome of a formal arraignment and bail hearing today.

“We received information indicating that he might be a flight risk,” Deputy Dist. Atty. Bobby Grace Jr. said outside court. “We acted on that information by asking for the [increased] bail.”

Del Toro’s attorney refused to comment Wednesday.

Del Toro, 50, was charged Tuesday with murder in the Aug. 16 death of Jennifer Teresa Flores, 42, who was found naked and bloody on a street not far from Del Toro’s Eagle Rock home. He was originally arrested that afternoon.

Authorities believe Del Toro killed the woman at his home, sources said, then placed her body in the back of his Toyota truck.

The sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the detectives believed that the body fell out of the truck while Del Toro was driving and may have gotten caught on a wheel and been dragged for some distance.

Detectives suspect that Del Toro dumped the body in the middle of a street three blocks from his house and may have tried to clean up blood around his house, sources said.