Month: June 2025

Jesus Reyes

BANNING, Calif. (KESQ) – An 82-year-old man convicted of killing a 75-year-old woman in Palm Springs six years ago was sentenced to 15 years to life on Monday.

Last month, Stephen Roy McKernan was found guilty of second-degree murder in the killing of Claire Carsman at her Palm Springs home in 2019. The jury also found true a sentence-enhancing charge of using a deadly weapon in the commission of a felony.

The jury deliberated for three days before convicting McKernan.

During his closing statement, Riverside County Deputy District Attorney Steven Sorensen acknowledged, “We don’t know why Mr. McKernan did it.”

But the prosecutor said testimony in the two-week trial had revealed there were political differences between the defendant and victim — she a Democrat, he a Republican.

“She was watching one of her TV shows, and they bickered,” Sorensen said. “He had a sadistic reason.”  

According to testimony, McKernan had known Carsman and her husband, whose identity was not disclosed, for years, and the couple invited him to stay with them in April 2019.

In the early afternoon of April 22, the victim’s spouse headed to an area casino to gamble, as was his habit, leaving his wife and McKernan alone at the single-story residence at 360 W. Pico Road, near Zanjero Road.

Sorensen said nothing was amiss until 5:53 p.m., when the man received a rapid succession of four calls from McKernan in under 10 minutes, all of which he missed.

One of the voicemail messages was replayed for the jury, during which McKernan was heard saying, “It’s a nightmare you’ve never been in your life. I need you to stay away so you’re not in any danger. We got attacked. We need your attorney. Jesus Christ.”

McKernan then called 911, telling the dispatcher, “We had a break-in. I think someone is dead.”   Carsman’s husband and the police arrived to find a grisly scene.

“She was bludgeoned,” Sorensen said, adding that blood spatter covering the defendant’s clothes indicated he “had to hold the barstool facing Mrs. Carsman.”

The defense countered during closing arguments last week that investigators could never determine whathad transpired, or whether Carsman and McKernan were the only ones in the house at the time of the crime.   

Selyem pointed to reports three vehicles were parked near the residence when McKernan called police on the afternoon of April 22, 2019, but none of them were checked.

The attorney emphasized that his client was wearing a cast while healing from a broken arm, leaving him unable to lift heavy objects, like the bar stool that investigators confirmed had been used in the deadly assault.   

“He drank wine, a quantity not known even to him, and he was taking Ativan,” Selyem told the jury. 

Ativan is used to treat anxiety disorders and can lead to drowsiness.   

The defense criticized detectives’ crime log from the scene, calling it a “disaster.”

“There are questions that have not been answered,” he said, referring particularly to “questionable” DNA evidence suggesting another person was in the victim’s residence, corresponding to McKernan’s initial statement that somebody had broken into the property.

Selyem said his client suffered cognitive impairment from a stroke, and he had an affinity for alcoholic beverages, but he was known as a “happy drunk.”

“He was safe around Mrs. Carsman,” the attorney said, dismissing the prosecution’s allegation that a disagreement over a news program may have ignited a conflict that turned fatal.  

“He was not capable of forming intent,” Selyem said.

McKernan has no documented prior felony convictions in Riverside County.

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City News Service

LOS ANGELES (CNS) – Waymo has temporarily suspended its ride-hailing service in downtown Los Angeles after several of its self-driving cars were set on fire during weekend protests over immigration enforcement actions, the company confirmed today.

The protests, which erupted following a series of federal immigration raids, escalated Sunday when demonstrators vandalized and torched multiple autonomous vehicles. Footage showed several Waymo driverless taxis engulfed in flames and others spray-painted with anti-Trump and anti-Immigration and Customs Enforcement messages.   

“Waymo is still operating in Los Angeles,” a company representative said Monday, “however, out of an abundance of caution given the recent activity, we removed vehicles from downtown Los Angeles and will not be serving that specific area of L.A. at the moment.”

The company added it is working in coordination with the Los Angeles Police Department.

Black smoke poured from about six Waymo driverless cars Sunday that were summoned to Los Angeles Street, then destroyed and set on fire. Authorities initially let the vehicles burn out on their own, choosing not to send in firefighters.

“Burning lithium-ion batteries release toxic gases, including hydrogen fluoride, posing risks to responders and those nearby,” officials stated.

By 7 p.m. Sunday, the car fires were extinguished by the Los Angeles Fire Department.  

It’s unclear why protesters targeted Waymo vehicles, which are operated by Alphabet, Google’s parent company.   

The company has long operated in San Francisco, where its white autonomous taxis are a common sight. It began offering driverless rides in Los Angeles in November 2024, following months of testing, according to its website.

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Tori King

COACHELLA, California (KESQ) — As protests over recent ICE Operations continue, some California cities say they will not aid federal agents in any way regarding matters over immigration enforcement. Many of these cities are known as “Sanctuary cities”, and there are several right here in the Coachella Valley. Here, Palm Springs, Cathedral City, and Coachella, are all designated as sanctuary cities. These cities prioritize local public safety and limit cooperation with federal immigration enforcement, offering a degree of protection for undocumented residents. 

“For the city of Coachella, the “Sanctuary city” status essentially says that we will not use any of our resources in the city of Coachella to assist federal immigration enforcement,” said Mayor Steven Hernandez. “We don’t ask the questions, “are you a citizen or not”, in any of our paperwork that’s required to get services in the city. So we don’t even have that information.”

Nancy Ross, the Mayor for Cathedral City also had a similar comment.

“Our police department, our city, we don’t ask our citizens where they’re from,” said Ross. “It doesn’t matter to us, but it matters a lot to the federal government.”

According to Global Refuge, a “sanctuary city” refers to a policy that limits or defines the extent to which a local or state government will share information with federal immigration law officers. But how is this allowed?

The California Values Act, otherwise known as SB 54, is a law that was passed in the state of California that significantly allows for the limitation of the cooperation between state and local law enforcement agencies and federal immigration enforcement agencies like ICE. 

It restricts the use of state and local resources for immigration enforcement, aiming to protect the safety and well-being of all Californians, says a source on ICE Out of California. 

However, Sanctuary cities have their limits, according to Ross and Claudio Koren, a Legal Center Staff Attorney with TODEC.

“We had border patrol cars and big vans in our city day after day, scooping people up,” said the Cathedral City Mayor. “We cannot defend them because it’s the national government that’s doing it.”

“Sanctuary doesn’t mean that city police or law enforcement will help protect people from immigration enforcement, for an arrest, or for a detention,” said Koren.”They will not do it. Nobody can interfere or stop immigration authorities from doing their job. Especially people with criminal history or detentions, those kind of things, the law in California is very, very explicit in deciding and telling the authorities you have to help immigration authorities in those situations. But this is why so so important that people individually know their rights and what they can do.”

Hernandez agrees.

“I think my message to folks that are undocumented or a family member, is to have a plan,” said Hernandez. “Really understand your rights. If you have folks that go to your door without a warrant, you don’t have to let them in. This is a country where you got to have warrants to enter into your property, you know you don’t have to let them in. You know, have a plan where your children or your family knows what to do.”

Despite having a sanctuary city status, Mayor Ross says there is only so much the city can do to protect non-citizens during ICE operations. And now, she has questions that she wants answers to regarding some of her constituents that were taken away in operations in her city last week. She says she has reached out to officials as well as the embassy to find information.

“Unfortunately, I think this is only the beginning. This will happen again, said Ross. “Where are our people. Where did they take them? Where are they getting any kind of protection? Is there going to be any right to a trial? Are they ever going to come back? Are they gone forever? Have our people been taken away forever. Where are our people?”

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