Two Local Murder Cases Return to Court on Monday

Two high-profile Pasadena murder cases involving three suspects return to court on Monday.

A preliminary hearing is scheduled to be set for Lamarr Marquise McDaniels II and Trevor James Dorman of Monrovia at 8:30 p.m. Monday. The men are facing murder charges in connection with the fatal shooting of 24-year-old Anthony Michael Tafoya Ortiz during a drug deal and robbery in Pasadena on Aug. 9, 2019.

McDaniels was arrested in Monrovia one day later by the U.S. Marshals’ Pacific Southwest Regional Fugitive Task Force and Pasadena police detectives. Dorman was arrested in Covina less than a week later.

Just after the shooting, Pasadena police officers responded to the 100 block of Painter Street and found a wounded Ortiz, was transported to a local hospital in grave condition and died two days later.

On Aug. 16, 2019, Dorman was charged with one count of murder and one count of attempted murder. McDaniels was charged with one count of murder, one count of assault with a firearm, one count of conspiracy, and one count of attempted robbery.

In the other case, a pretrial hearing is scheduled for Los Angeles resident Telly R. Johnson, 42. Johnson is accused of murder in the fatal stabbing of the manager of a supportive-housing apartment building for homeless people on Euclid Avenue in Pasadena on March 1, 2019.

According to police, Johnson fatally stabbed Byron Young Nettles after Nettles told Young that he could not help his wife. Nettles was rushed to Huntington Hospital where he underwent emergency surgery. He later died from his wounds.

The fatal stabbing forced a police lockdown of a wide area of Pasadena and an hours-long search.

One witness told KCAL-News that she saw Nettles being stabbed in the face and chest with a switchblade knife after a fistfight.