SAN BERNARDINO — The man arrested in the shooting death of 3-year-old Nylah Franco-Torrez could face 305 years to life in prison based on charges filed by prosecutors Thursday.

Brandon Taray Barnes, 19, of San Bernardino was arrested by San Bernardino police Wednesday night after gang officers spotted him riding a bicycle near where the shooting occurred.

“He will never come out to harm another citizen of this community,” San Bernardino County District Attorney Michael A. Ramos said at a news conference at the San Bernardino Police Department.

Barnes, a suspected gang member, could be arraigned on one count of murder and seven counts of attempted murder as early as today.

Police said they identified Barnes as the suspect within 24 hours of Monday’s shooting. Officers saw him at the corner of Base Line and Mayfield Avenue at 5:09 p.m. Wednesday.

They caught him in the 1100 block of North D Street after a foot chase.

Barnes was booked into West Valley Detention Center in Rancho Cucamonga and held without bail.

Nylah, 21-year-old La-Donna Howie and Howie’s 4-year-old daughter, Justine, were in front of their home in the 1300 block of North D Street at 7:40 p.m. Monday when a gunman opened fire. Police said more than a dozen rounds were fired.

Bullets struck the children in the head, and Howie in the neck and jaw. Howie and her daughter survived the attack, but the child was in extremely critical condition.

Patricia Prendergast, Nylah’s aunt, said Justine was placed into a medically induced coma Wednesday because doctors anticipated her head would start swelling from the wound. She showed promising signs before then.

“I know at one point she opened her eyes and moved around a little bit,” Prendergast said.

Relatives said Howie could be released from the hospital as early as today. They also said Howie didn’t realize the severity of her daughter’s wound until Wednesday night and that she didn’t know Nylah had died.

“She doesn’t remember what happened,” Prendergast said.

Police said the gunman opened fire on the house because he was retaliating against a man who stopped him from hitting a woman in the neighborhood earlier that day. Police have identified and interviewed the woman from that earlier attack.

Residents on D Street suspected the man police were chasing Wednesday night might be the suspected gunman, but didn’t receive confirmation until the following day.

“He had the nerve to be walking around this neighborhood,” said Nylah’s great-grandmother, Sophia Cardona.

Yvonne Torrez, the life partner of Nylah’s mother, Jessica Franco, said she was walking to the store when about 10 people gathered to check out the police activity.

“They were calling, `Baby killer.’ There was a lot of screaming and yelling,” she said.

Police Chief Keith Kilmer said detectives had been working continuously since the killing.

“We have not stopped. We have not faltered,” he said.

But police say their work isn’t done.

“There’s still a lot of work to be done to make sure this case is thoroughly investigated and thoroughly prosecuted,” Lt. Gwen Waters said.

Jessica Franco said the growing collection in her front yard of balloons, stuffed animals, candles and donations – some from complete strangers – has helped her get through the days since the shooting.

She had mixed feelings about Barnes’ arrest.

“Whether or not he gets put in prison for the rest of his life, it’s not going to bring my baby back,” the 25-year-old said. “I really want him to pay for what he did.”

The family is holding a car wash fundraiser from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday at Anna’s Market, 1198 N. D St., San Bernardino.

A benefit concert will be at 1 p.m. Sept. 25 at Ray’s Downtown Deli, 168 S. E St., San Bernardino.

Donations can also be made to the Nylah Franco-Torrez Fund at First Valley Credit Union, 401 W. Second St., San Bernardino.

Chris David Wilcox, 33, allegedly collided with motorcyclist Sebastian Bobby Orioli Jr. on May 25 at Euclid Avenue and Holt Boulevard in Ontario.

Orioli, of Upland, was thrown from his Harley-Davidson motorcycle when he collided with Wilcox’s 1999 Chevrolet Tahoe at about 5:30 p.m.

Orioli, 38, suffered severe injuries and later died at Loma Linda Medical Center, according to a police report in Wilcox’s court file.

Wilcox failed field sobriety tests, and breath tests at the scene yielded blood-alcohol measurements of 0.26 and 0.24, about three times the legal limit of 0.08, according to the police report.

Wilcox has pleaded not guilty to criminal charges, and is next due July 27 in West Valley Superior Court.

He remained jailed Friday in lieu of $500,000 bail at West Valley Detention Center in Rancho Cucamonga.

According to the police report, Wilcox made an illegal left-hand turn from southbound Euclid onto Holt.

As he entered the intersection, the passenger side of his vehicle was struck by Orioli, who was traveling north on Euclid and had the right-of-way, according to the report.

Wilcox suffered minor scrapes to one of his arms in the collision, possibly from when an airbag deployed in his car.

At the time of the collision, Wilcox, a manager at Old World Delicatessen in West Covina, was driving his children to hockey practice, according to the police report.

He told police he only drank one glass of wine prior to the incident. He said he drank wine while he was at work about three hours before the crash.

In addition to vehicular manslaughter, prosecutors have charged Wilcox with a DUI-related felony and two counts of felony child abuse. Wilcox’s two young children were in his car at the time of the incident.

Will Bigham, Staff Writer

Carmen Montenegro, 51, was taken into police custody Sunday afternoon. She is being held at the West Valley Detention Center on suspicion of murder, said Detective Jeff Crittenden of the Ontario Police Department.

Investigators spent much of Monday searching a home in the 700 block of Holmes Avenue for additional evidence, Crittenden said. Police had not determined whether the unidentified male was killed at the house or was brought there.
Ontario police were called to the area of H Street and Holmes Avenue about 2:45 p.m. Sunday after several people called 911 to report a woman pushing a trash container that appeared to contain human remains.

Responding officers confirmed there were human remains in the trash bin. The investigation led them to the Holmes Avenue house, where Montenegro once lived, Crittenden said.

The remains have been transferred to the county coroner for further analysis. The race and age of the remains are not known, police said.

Anyone with information is asked to contact Detective Al Parra at 909-395-2752.

By MICHELLE L. KLAMPE
The Press-Enterprise

With Bibles in hand, inmates are greeted by volunteers with a warm welcome and a firm handshake. An hour-long service begins with a prayer, is followed by a sermon and concluded with reflections on what they discussed.

For some it may play as a sense of normalcy as inmates are treated to a similar experience that many people receive every Sunday at their respective congregations.

It also serves as an opportunity to get closer to God and also search for forgiveness for their crime.

Alfredo Garcia, 35, is one of about a dozen inmates from the center’s Protective Custody unit who attends Sunday church services.

Before being sentenced to jail, Garcia said he was active in his local church community and attended services has a way to grow and learn life lessons.

“When they (the volunteers) visit, I usually come,” he said. “I want to keep learning how I can make myself better and to forgive myself for what I did.

“And hopefully for others to forgive me for what I did.”

Services are offered four times a day on Sundays, twice in the morning and twice in the afternoon.

Services are led by volunteers from local churches, including Chaplain Gary Gonzales of Pure Rock Community Church in Beaumont.

Gonzales has been volunteering at West Valley since 1983, helping to spread the word of God to those looking to find religion or continue their religious education.

Many inmates can relate to Gonzales’ message as he was in jail before being released on three years parole in the 1970s.

“I can relate to the daily struggles they themselves might be going through and who are trying to figure it all out,” he said. “It’s an everyday responsibility and they must be willing to make it right, instead of denying something.”

Gonzales said he received the message of God after he headed straight to a Christian men’s home after receiving his parole.

On Sunday, he led a service at the center’s General Population unit, but said he returns to the center every Tuesday to speak to inmates on a one-on-one basis if he is asked.

“They make a request to talk with (me) and I pray with them,” he said. “It’s a way for others to talk with me in a quiet environment because sometimes they want to discuss something they don’t want other (inmates) to know.”

At this Sunday’s service he encouraged inmates after they finish sentence, to follow parole instructions and pay any fines necessary.

“I was in jail for a few months waiting for my trial to start. I was lucky that God didn’t allow me to go to jail, but it was a big wake-up call,” he said.

By Joe Mozingo and Maeve Reston, Los Angeles Times Staff Writers

San Bernardino County officials have agreed to pay $25.5 million to settle a class-action lawsuit that said jailers conducted illegal strip searches, sometimes in front of inmates and deputies of the opposite sex.

As many as 160,000 inmates may have been subjected to the searches over three years, attorneys for the plaintiffs said, and each could get several hundred dollars, depending on how many apply for the award. The settlement is one of the largest in the nation to resolve the issue balancing jail security concerns and inmates’ privacy rights.

Between May 2003 and December 2006, sheriff’s deputies strip-searched many inmates they processed into the two central jails, even if there was no reason to suspect them of smuggling contraband, the plaintiffs’ attorneys said at a news conference in Los Angeles.

Inmates were forced to bend over and spread their buttocks so deputies could see their body cavities, and some had their genitals inspected, according to the lawsuit. “These are pretty humiliating things for people who were arrested for all sorts of things, including very minor offenses,” said attorney Barry Litt.

San Bernardino County spokesman David Wert said the county denies wrongdoing and disputes the allegations in the suit.

County Supervisor Brad Mitzelfelt said San Bernardino County agreed to settle the suit to avoid the risks of litigation and noted that insurance would pay for most of the settlement. The department changed its policy last year after the lawsuit was filed so that the only people being strip-searched are those suspected of carrying contraband, Wert said.

Sheriff’s spokeswoman Jodi Miller said the searches were done for jail security. “Strip searches were never conducted with the thought of embarrassment to anyone; it was all to ensure the safety of all persons,” she said.

The agreement requires the county to contact current and former inmates who may have been subject to searches. The agreement is expected to become final after a court hearing in February.

The suit was filed on behalf of six women and one man who were searched at the West Valley Detention Center or the Central Detention Center. They were accused of crimes including violation of a restraining order and failure to appear in court in a drunk driving case.

It alleged that the searches violated their constitutional right to due process, freedom from unreasonable search and seizure, and the ban on cruel and unusual punishment. It also alleges that the group strip searches violated state privacy laws.

The settlement names five groups of inmates who were searched illegally: those transferred between county jails before they were arraigned, federal inmates searched upon arriving at a county jail, inmates who had been in custody of another law enforcement agency, inmates who were ordered released and brought back to jail for processing, and inmates searched in groups.

Litt said that in December, a federal judge ruled that jail officials had violated the rights of inmates who were being strip-searched before their arraignments as well as those the courts had ordered released.

The judge found the procedure was an unreasonable search, Litt said.

Plaintiff Betty Welch said she was forced to strip three times with others at the West Valley Detention Center in July 2005, in view of male inmates and sheriff’s deputies not involved in the search. Some could watch through a large window in the hallway. She had been arrested for failure to appear on a drunk driving charge.

“That’s a violation,” she said.

The first time she was searched was when Adelanto police brought her to the detention center.

Welch appeared in court on July 25. Before she was taken to court, she was strip-searched, and after the judge ordered her released, she was taken back to West Valley and searched a third time.

Welch, 52, said inmates were forced to squat for at least a minute. She has steel rods and plates in her legs from a car accident and was in pain. She said another woman was eight months pregnant and was having trouble breathing.

Elroy Hardy said he was searched in a hallway of the West Valley Detention Center in Rancho Cucamonga with more than 40 other inmates.

Hardy, who was in custody in March 2005 for allegedly violating a restraining order, said the inmates were forced to stand naked, shoulder to shoulder and bend over with their backs to the guards while they were searched.

Hardy said female deputies and jail trustees were watching or walking through the area as they escorted other inmates or delivered bedding.

San Bernardino County Sheriff Gary Penrod, who was named in the lawsuit, was not available for comment.

The other four county supervisors did not return calls for comment.