Murder charges filed in shootings
Prosecutors filed murder charges Tuesday against two men and a teenager accused of fatally shooting two employees -- a single mother and a soon-to-retire 74-year-old -- at a Carson gas station earlier this month.
Julio Perez, 22, Adam Loza, 23, and Eric Elmo Sanford, all of Los Angeles, face two counts each of murder and two counts each of attempted robbery for their alleged roles in the Nov. 4 slayings.
They will be arraigned Nov. 30 at Los Angeles County Superior Court in Compton.
The district attorney will decide later whether to seek the death penalty against Perez and Loza, spokeswoman Sandi Gibbons said.
Sanford, whose date of birth is contradicted in official records, is either 15 or 16. He is not subject to the death penalty because he is a minor, but faces life in prison without the possibility of parole, if convicted.
The owner of the Mobil mini-mart in the 22200 block of Avalon Boulevard found the bodies of Esther Arteaga, 32, of Wilmington and Eduardo Roco of Carson behind the counter about 5 a.m. Police said the two were slain in an apparent botched robbery -- no money was missing from the register.
Arteaga, who had a 7-year-old daughter, had been hired a week earlier and was working her first late-night shift.
Roco, a father of three who had planned to retire soon, was training her.
A security video from an adjacent business led police to the suspects.
All are being held without bail. Sanford is in juvenile custody.
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