INSIDE SCOOP
LOCAL
SPORTS
MTA DEBATES SUBWAY ROUTE PAGE 3 CRIME IN SANTA MONICA PAGE 6 BRONCO’S SUSPENSION CUT PAGE 10
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 2008
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Volume 7 Issue 254
Santa Monica Daily Press TWO SIDES OF PALIN SEE PAGES 4&5
Since 2001: A news odyssey
THE CRIME WATCH ISSUE
SM repairman denies killing actor’s former girlfriend BY DAILY PRESS STAFF LOS ANGELES A 32-year-old Santa Monica man pleaded not guilty Thursday to the stabbing deaths of two women, including a former girlfriend of actor Ashton Kutcher. Michael Thomas Gargiulo, who has been jailed since July, was linked to the two killings — along with a 1993 slaying in suburban Chicago, where Gargiulo lived at the time — via DNA evidence, Santa Monica police said. Los Angeles County prosecutors charged Gargiulo with two counts of murder for the Feb. 22, 2001 death of Ashley Ellerin and the Dec. 1, 2005, death of Maria Bruno in Monterey Park. The murder charges include the special circumstance allegations of murder during the commission of a robbery, murder by means of lying in wait and multiple murders. Prosecutors will decide at a later time whether to seek the death penalty, according to Jane Robison of the District Attorney’s Office. Gargiulo is also charged with firstdegree burglary with a person present involving each of the two women. “He is adamant he was not involved,” Gargiulo’s lawyer Anthony Salerno said. The complaint alleges that he personally used a knife in the commission of all of the crimes, which also include an April 28 burglary and attempted murder of another woman in Santa Monica. Ellerin, a 22-year-old fashion designer who dated Kutcher, was found stabbed to death in her Hollywood Hills home. Gargiulo is being held in lieu of $1.1 million bail.
OPENING DAY
Morgan Genser news@smdp.com PS#1 Pluralistic School founder Joel Pelcyger on Tuesday evening prepares to cut the ribbon at a grand opening celebration for a new classroom and Adult-Care Enrichment Center at the campus on Euclid Street. The addition of this classroom — the campus' eighth — will enable the school to fully implement its educational philosophy that embraces clusters of classrooms, which enhance a child's sense of community.
news@smdp.com
Serial shoplifting suspects strike Main BY MELODY HANATANI Daily Press Staff Writer
MAIN STREET Roxanna Cervantes knew what was going to happen but was powerless to act. She could do nothing but stare suspi-
ciously and keep a watchful eye as a group of shoppers perused a pile of clothes at her Main Street boutique, women whom she had suspected were involved in a string of shoplifting incidents in the area. She later sighed in exasperation as she watched on surveillance footage one of the
Gary Limjap
women snatch a pair of jeans and run out of the store just as Cervantes turned around. Exasperation is a feeling shared by a number of Main Street merchants these days, fed up at a group of young women who have allegedly shoplifted form several
Five generations of family jewelers
(310) 586-0339
garylimjap@earthlink.net
SEE SHOPLIFTING PAGE 8
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clothing boutiques, their modus operandi involving one suspect distracting a sales associate while the other goes to work. Store owners have been on the lookout since Gary Gordon, the executive director
SAMUEL B. MOSES, CPA Monday-Saturday 10am-6pm 331 Wilshire Blvd. Santa Monica 2 Hours Free Parking (Behind Store) 310.451.1349 • www.readersjewelers.com
(310) 395-9922 100 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 1800 Santa Monica 90401