LONG BEACH, Calif. -- Police children and was not homeless, have announced the arrests of but liked to hang out at the 2 alleged gang members in spot for unknown reasons. connection with the murders She lived with her mother and of five people in a shooting children -- ages 8, 10, 13, rampage at a homeless camp in 14, 15 and 16 -- at a home 2008. about two miles away, they David Cruz Ponce, 31, and Max said. Eliseo Rafael, 25, were each "She was a good person," said charged with five special Malaepule's sister, Veronica circumstance murders in the Puaauli, 27. "Very funny. case, said Deputy District Everybody loved her." Attorney Eric Harmon. Her uncle Ilager McMoore said The criminal complaint lists police told him his niece was the special circumstance found beneath the body of her allegations as murder in the boyfriend, as though he had commission of kidnapping and tried to shield her from the murder of witnesses to a gunfire. crime. At the time, McMoore said he The bodies of three men and suspected the boyfriend may two women were discovered on have been involved in a gang November 2 in the space dispute. between commercial buildings Ponce is additionally charged and Interstate 405 near the with the kidnapping and Santa Fe Avenue off-ramp. murder of Tony Bledsoe of Ponce and Rafael, purportedly Lancaster on March 23, 2009. of the Nuthood Watts gang, In that case, Ponce is are accused of killing charged with one count each Vanessa Malaepule, 34; her of murder and kidnapping to boyfriend Lorenzo Perez commit another crime with a Villacana, 44, who lived at special circumstance the camp; Katherine Verdun, allegation that Bledsoe was 24; Hamid "Sammy" Shraifat, killed while the defendant 41; and Frederick Neumeier, was engaged in the crime of 53. kidnapping. Don Morgan, a friend of the Ponce has three felony victims, told KTLA in 2008 convictions from 2003 for that he knew them all by second-degree robbery, first- their first names or degree residential burglary nicknames -- LV, Vanessa, Cat, and possession of a Sammy and Fred. controlled substance. He said they liked to come to Ponce and Rafael also have the site to party. been linked to a 2010 murder Relatives of Malaepule said plot involving a rival gang she was the mother of six member.
Tags: 2008, arrested, camp, gang, Homeless, massacre, members
