Category: kesq-local-news

Matthew Pearce

PALM SPRINGS, Calif. (KESQ) — A motorcyclist was hospitalized and arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence following a collision with a pickup truck in Palm Springs on Saturday morning, according to Palm Springs Police.

Officers with the Palm Springs Police Department responded to the crash at approximately 9:44 a.m. on East Ramon Road, east of South Sunrise Way.

Upon arrival, police found the injured motorcyclist lying on the roadway with an arm laceration and a suspected leg fracture. Paramedics transported the motorcyclist to a local hospital for treatment.

Westbound lanes of East Ramon Road near Farrell Drive were temporarily closed while officers cleared the roadway and investigated the crash.

Following the incident, the Palm Springs Police Department reminded all motorists to drive responsibly, stay attentive and never operate a vehicle while impaired.

Click here to follow the original article.

City News Service

PALM SPRINGS, Calif. (KESQ) – Modernism Week, a fall celebration of midcentury art, architecture and design, will return next week with more than 50 activities throughout Palm Springs.

The event will take place from Oct. 15-18, with a portion of ticket sales to benefit the nonprofit organization and other local preservation, neighborhood and community groups.

A few of the activities will include a tour at a late modernist home in Indian Canyons, a historic retrospective on music in the Coachella Valley, a home tour within the Blue Skies Village community, a home tour at the midcentury desert resort living community at CoCo Cabana, a film screening of “Arthur Elrod: Desert Cool” and a walking tour of Frank Sinatra’s neighborhood.

More information, including tickets and event schedule, can be found at modernismweek.com.

Click here to follow the original article.

City News Service

BANNING, Calif. (KESQ) – A 24-year-old woman who joined two young men in robbing and killing a marijuana dealer at a Riverside apartment complex was convicted of first-degree murder and other charges.

A Banning jury on Thursday deliberated only a few hours before finding Merlin Perales Ortiz of Yucca Valley guilty in the 2020 slaying of 20-year-old Wesley Flores Miranda, a Honduran national. Along with murder, jurors convicted Ortiz of conspiracy and a special-circumstance allegation of killing in the course of a robbery.

Riverside County Superior Court Judge Jonathan Mendoza scheduled a sentencing hearing for Nov. 18 at the Banning Justice Center. The defendant is expected to receive life in prison without the possibility of parole.

She’s being held without bail at the nearby Smith Correctional Facility.

Ortiz’s co-defendants, Isaiah Israel Rodriguez and Cristian Alejandro Runkle, now both 23, pleaded guilty in October 2021 to second-degree murder. In addition to murder, Rodriguez admitted a sentence enhancing gun use allegation. He was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison. Runkle was sentenced to 15 years to life.

The holdup occurred on the night of Nov. 8, 2020, at an apartment leased by Runkle’s girlfriend, identified only as “Star,” in the 5200 block of El Cerrito Drive in the Canyon Crest neighborhood of south Riverside, according to a trial brief filed by the District Attorney’s Office.

Prosecutors said Ortiz and her co-defendants were affiliated with a decades-old San Bernardino street gang and had schemed to rob “weed” dealers throughout the region for months.

The trio obtained Miranda’s contact information via social media and arranged to meet him at Star’s residence, where she fell asleep in her bedroom “because she had been drinking and doing drugs during the day,” court papers stated.

Ortiz was the principal planner in the holdup, directing Rodriguez to act as the gunman, prosecutors said.

Security surveillance video cameras around the apartment complex captured nearly the entire sequence of events that night.

Videos showed the victim emerging from his car, carrying a backpack, then proceeding to the apartment, where Ortiz met him at the door. After Miranda stepped inside — out of the cameras’ view — investigators said he was confronted by Runkle and Rodriguez, and the latter brandished a Glock 9mm semiautomatic handgun at him.

Ortiz ordered the young man in Spanish to give up his backpack, but he refused, leading to a struggle in which he was fatally shot in the upper body just outside the doorway, according to the prosecution.

The trio fled, with the backpack, leaving the now-awakened Star to deal with the dead man and Riverside police officers who soon converged on the apartment complex, the brief said.

Four weeks of collecting evidence culminated in detectives identifying the defendants, all of whom were taken into custody without incident in San Bernardino County.

Ortiz had no documented prior felony or misdemeanor convictions.

Get the News Channel 3 app here. Click here to follow the original article.

City News Service

RIVERSIDE, Calif. (KESQ) – Although it’s not a state holiday, Riverside County courts will be largely inactive Monday due to the Columbus Day federal holiday, which virtually all of the county’s collective bargaining units recognize and receive as a day off.

“This can affect courtroom scheduling, particularly in criminal matters, where proceedings often require the participation of the District Attorney’s Office, Public Defender’s Office and Sheriff’s Office personnel, who are responsible for courtroom security,” Superior Court spokesman Kareem Gongora told City News Service Friday.

The state government, under which the county court system operates, has recognized Native American Day at the end of September as a paid holiday since 2021. Prior to that time, Columbus Day — or Indigenous Peoples’ Day — was observed as a state holiday.

The county does not include Native American Day in its annual list of recognized holidays, and the unions generally don’t advocate for it.

Due to the lack of prosecutors, public defenders and bailiffs, courtrooms often go dark on Columbus Day. Few, if any, criminal proceedings are scheduled Monday in Riverside County.

“Judicial officers may use this time to address other court-related responsibilities, including reviewing cases, preparing for upcoming proceedings and managing pending matters,” Gongora said. “Although the court remains open for business, courtroom calendars may be lighter than usual due to the unavailability of justice partners and other operational considerations.”

Proceedings are slated to get back on track Tuesday.

Click here to follow the original article.

City News Service

BLYTHE, Calif. (KESQ) – The ongoing turnaround plan for bankrupt Palo Verde Hospital in Blythe continue today to net successes with the help of Riverside County administrators and medical staff, who were dispatched to the financially ailing facility earlier this year under a Board of Supervisors-approved rescue plan.

“Riverside University Health System was brought in at a critical time with a clear objective, and the amount of work accomplished in a short period of time has been extraordinary,” Moreno Valley-based RUHS Medical Center CEO Jennifer Cruikshank said. “The hospital’s immediate position is more stable today, and many of the foundational processes needed to support safe, reliable care have been rebuilt or strengthened.”

On Wednesday evening, a progress report was delivered to the public during the Palo Verde Healthcare District Board of Directors’ meeting.

Officials noted a few recent milestones have included reduction of emergency room wait times from an average 42 minutes last winter to 13 minutes currently; the completion of nearly two dozen improvement projects, including a new roof and repairs to the hospital’s cooling and backup power systems; and an overhaul in emergency room staffing that, for the first time in more than a decade, has led to the placement of dedicated in-house nursing staff, not travel nurses.

“When we looked department by department, the same needs showed up almost everywhere,” RUHS Chief Nursing Officer Leah Patterson said. “Pharmacy, the lab, radiology and respiratory therapy each needed updated policies, reliable equipment and stronger processes. Department leaders and hospital staff have spent the past seven months addressing those needs.”

The Board of Supervisors in February signed off on a six-month financial and technical rescue plan to bring the facility back to a sustainable condition. A “strike team” authorized by the board and composed of RUHS medical professionals initiated a reformation on Feb. 23 intended to stabilize the hospital’s emergency clinic, which is the only department in operation for patient care at the site.

Under the management services agreement between the county and PVHD, RUHS staff are implementing all necessary processes connected to the strike team support plan, with the goal of maintaining emergency operations. There are 26 contract emergency physicians available to render services 24 hours, seven days a week, according to the county Executive Office.

Those doctors were supplied by Emeryville-based Vituity Healthcare Solutions.

The management services agreement was set to expire in August, but the board extended it to Nov. 21.

The supervisors authorized a $3.44 million allocation from the General Fund as payment to the California Department of Health Services on behalf of the healthcare district. That followed a separate $1 million General Fund disbursal directly benefiting the hospital. The money was the core of a stabilization loan to keep the insolvent hospital afloat.

According to the district, the county’s outlays enabled the district to tap into taxpayer-backed credit available under Medi-Cal totaling $9.9 million to bolster hospital operations. Afterward, the district was further awarded a $3 million state grant, which came on the heels of $1.8 million in federal relief.

In September 2025, the PVHD board voted to seek federal Chapter 9 bankruptcy protection while efforts were made to stanch ongoing financial losses. Administrators noted the hospital had been struggling to remain afloat since the start of the current decade, with revenue streams withering while patient loads remained unchanged.

The California Health Facilities Financing Authority extended an $8.5 million infusion from the Distressed Hospital Program in 2023, but that turned into a short-term fix, according to the district. Officials expressed frustration at the time about the inability to recruit a chief financial officer who would stay the course in sorting out possible solutions. Four CFOs came and went in an 18-month span.

Click here to follow the original article.

Jesus Reyes

COACHELLA VALLEY, Calif. (KESQ) – It’s week 8 of the high school football season, headlined by the Cook Street Rivalry and the Date Bowl.

Xavier Prep – 14 @ Palm Desert – 3 F Rancho Mirage – 44 @ La Quinta – 35 F Palm Springs – 21 @ Shadow Hills – 14 F Coachella Valley – 49 @ Desert Mirage – 18 F Banning – 49 @ Twentynine Palms – 20 F Desert Christian Academy – 19 @ Linfield Christian – 12 F

The Best Local Sports Show airs LIVE every Friday night throughout the season.

Stay with News Channel 3 for continuing coverage of high school football.

Click here to follow the original article.

Garrett Hottle

For about a year, two storefronts one on South Palm Canyon Drive in downtown Palm Springs, the other in the Jensen’s shopping center on Highway 111 in Palm Desert have promised a One More Bite Dumpling House that never opened. Now the owners say they know when the steamers will finally turn on, and they’re explaining what went wrong.

Palm Desert could open by the end of October, and Palm Springs about two months later, Luyi Deng, the wife of one of the owners, told News Channel 3 on Wednesday. Deng runs the company’s social media.

“Tell them that we are coming,” Deng said, when asked what she wanted people who drive by the empty storefronts to know.

What happened

Deng said the company signed leases for both desert locations in July or August 2025 and, that October, hired a draftsman to prepare and submit the building plans and permit applications.

“She was supposed to be responsible for preparing and submitting all our plans,” Deng said. “But she didn’t do that, and she didn’t tell us the truth. She just told us that everything had been submitted.”

Deng said the draftsman sent the owners a fake screenshot purporting to show the city had received their application. The owners didn’t learn the truth until early this year, when they went to city hall in person and found nothing had been filed, Deng said. She said the draftsman admitted it.

City records support the timeline. Palm Desert’s permit for the space at 73547 Highway 111 was created May 1, 2026, and issued Aug. 18. Palm Springs’ tenant-improvement permit for 105 S. Palm Canyon Drive — the former Antigua space, valued at $125,000 — wasn’t filed until July 14. It has been in “corrections requested” status since. A separate fence permit was denied the next day.

The company has been paying rent on both spaces since April, Deng said.

The owners are not naming the draftsman. Deng said the woman has agreed to repay the company’s losses including rent and staff training costs once the restaurants open, and because she is listed on every application, replacing her would take even longer.

“At this point we cannot change it,” Deng said. “She’s the person on all the applications.”

Where things stand

In Palm Desert, the fire department asked for fire alarm drawings, which the company has submitted, Deng said. The restaurant is now waiting on another fire inspection, then a county health inspection.

In Palm Springs, the holdup is the patio. Deng said the city flagged drawings that didn’t match and asked for corrections. The building, the 1951 Oasis Commercial Building, is a Class 1 historic site.

Deng said city staff in both cities have been “wonderful,” and that Palm Springs City Hall invited the owners to a meeting to walk them through the process and promised to speed things up.

A valley hungry for dumplings

One More Bite has five locations open: Loma Linda, Wildomar, San Marcos, Chino and Yucaipa. Deng’s husband is from Shanghai; she is from Guangdong. Their specialty is xiao long bao, the handcrafted Shanghainese soup dumpling.

“When we opened our second location in Wildomar, the first few weeks it was packed every day,” Deng said.

Yucaipa opened in about five months, Deng said, because the company took over an existing restaurant and didn’t have to submit plans from scratch. The two desert locations have been the longest and hardest approvals the company has faced.

Deng said she regrets putting up signs and posting videos so early. “Some people are kind of frustrated, because they’ve been waiting and they keep asking what is the date, and we couldn’t tell them,” she said. “I totally understand.”

On Tuesday, the company posted what it called “an honest update, from our hearts” on Instagram, explaining the delay. Hundreds of likes and comments followed, most of them supportive.

“I didn’t expect that much response and support and love, and that really moved me to tears,” Deng said. “They think it’s part of the community. That made me very honored.”

“I just want to thank all the community that keeps showing up for us and standing with us and waiting so patiently,” she said. “I hope we will not disappoint them. We are pushing every single day.”

Until then, the valley will have to wait for just one more bite.

Click here to follow the original article.

City News Service

HOLLYWOOD, Calif. (KESQ) – A judge ruled today that a model and social media influencer accused of stealing from people she met through dating apps is mentally competent to stand trial.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Maria Cavalluzzi announced Friday that psychiatrist Dr. Phani Tumu found Adva Lavie, 29, “presently competent,” according to media reports. The finding clears the way for criminal proceedings to resume after they were suspended in August.

Lavie, also known as Mia Ventura, has pleaded not guilty to charges stemming from allegations that she stole money and valuables from people she met through dating apps, including wealthy older men and younger women.

Prosecutors allege Lavie targeted victims in Westlake Village, West Hollywood, Los Angeles and Beverly Hills between 2023 and 2025, posing as a girlfriend or travel companion to gain access to their homes before stealing cash, jewelry and designer merchandise.

Check Out: Podcaster close to model/influencer accused in Indio grand theft speaks out

She is charged with two counts each of grand theft and unauthorized use of personal identifying information, along with one count each of first-degree residential burglary and first-degree residential burglary with a person present.

Lavie was ordered to stand trial following a preliminary hearing in March, but criminal proceedings were suspended in August after her attorney raised concerns about her mental competency.

A judge had earlier denied a defense request for a mental health diversion program.

Lavie has remained in custody since July, when she was arrested while free on electronic monitoring. A judge subsequently denied bail.

She is also facing a separate criminal case in Riverside County involving allegations that she stole more than $11,000 worth of luxury items from an Airbnb rental during the 2025 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival.

Lavie had been engaged to billionaire real estate investor and former gubernatorial candidate Stephen Cloobeck, who was arrested in May and charged with attempting to dissuade witnesses from testifying in the criminal case against her.

Cloobeck pleaded not guilty Aug. 7 to three felony counts involving alleged witness intimidation and a misdemeanor count of making annoying telephone calls.

The alleged victims named in the criminal complaint against Cloobeck are also alleged victims in Lavie’s case.

Lavie faces up to 11 years and eight months in state prison if convicted as charged in the Los Angeles County case, according to prosecutors.

Get the News Channel 3 app here. Click here to follow the original article.

Jesus Reyes

JOSHUA TREE, Calif. (KESQ) – Investigators with the Los Angeles Police Department were in the Joshua Tree area continuing their search for a woman missing since December.

LAPD officials confirmed to News Channel 3 that Detectives from its Robbery-Homicide Division were conducting a search in the Joshua Tree area for evidence related to the disappearance of Christina Lynn Downer, 38.

There was no word on where the search was taking place.

Downer, the sister of SNL writer Jimmy Fowlie, was last contacted on December 10, 2025, via text message with a friend, police said. Her last known location was in the Koreatown area of Los Angeles.

In late April, Fowlie announced in an Instagram post that investigators told the family that his sister was “no longer alive” and the case had transitioned from a missing persons case to a homicide investigation. The LAPD disputed this report, stating that “Ms. Downer has not been located, and her case has not been reclassified as a homicide.”

Fowlie also added in that post that the family has reason to believe that Downer’s phone and social media were “compromised” in the weeks leading up to her disappearance.

“The individual(s) in possession of her phone used it to hide the fact that she was gone, to ask for money, and to create a false narrative that she was going ‘off the grid.'”

Anyone with information regarding the whereabouts of Christina Lynn Downer is asked to contact the Los Angeles Police Department’s Missing Persons Unit at (213) 996-1800. During non-business hours or on weekends, calls should be directed to 1-877-LAPD-24-7 (1-877-527-3247).

Anyone wishing to remain anonymous should call the L.A. Regional Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS (800-222-8477) or go directly to www.lacrimestoppers.org. Tipsters may also download the “P3 Tips” mobile application and select the L.A. Regional Crime Stoppers as their local program.

Get the News Channel 3 app here. Click here to follow the original article.

Jesus Reyes

RIVERSIDE, Calif. (KESQ) – A 22-year-old man who fatally shot his lifelong friend during an act of gunplay in Sky Valley was convicted today of second-degree murder.

A Riverside jury deliberated about four days before finding Alexis Yahir Duran of Cathedral City guilty of second-degree murder for the 2023 death of 17-year-old Adam Pineda of Desert Hot Springs.

Jurors returned the verdict Friday morning. Although they convicted him of murder, the panel did not find him guilty of sentence-enhancing gun and great bodily injury allegations, which would have doubled his sentence.

Riverside County Superior Court Judge Jerry Yang scheduled a sentencing hearing for Dec. 18 at the Riverside Hall of Justice. Duran is being held without bail at the Benoit Detention Center.

He’s facing a minimum statutory sentence of 15 years to life in state prison, unless the judge makes any type of modification.

According to a trial brief filed by the District Attorney’s Office, Duran and Pineda had been best friends since elementary school, and on the morning of Feb. 4, 2023, the victim and defendant, along with the latter’s younger brother, Jose Duran, planned to go to a party together but needed a mutual friend to guide them there, so while waiting for him, they parked along Wide Canyon Road in Sky Valley.

The trio had spent most of the previous day and night at a fundraiser to cover funeral expenses for Pineda’s family following the suicide of the victim’s brother, prosecutors said.

Pineda drove his Jeep Cherokee, with Duran in the right front passenger seat and the defendant’s brother in the backseat, according to the brief. The threesome got out of the SUV for a few minutes and fired a couple of rounds from a 9mm handgun that Duran had acquired illegally via social media three weeks earlier, the prosecution said.

They then returned to the Jeep, where Duran put the pistol in his lap.

“Pineda took the firearm from the defendant’s lap and examined it,” the narrative said. “The defendant heard Pineda rack the handgun, and Pineda gave it back to the defendant. The defendant began examining the firearm himself, and while moving the handgun around, pulled the trigger and shot Pineda one time in the right side of his head.”

The bullet went through his head, exiting on the left side.

Duran and his brother placed the mortally wounded teenager in the back seat, and the defendant drove to Desert Regional Medical Center in Palm Springs, where he and his brother carried the victim into the emergency room, then left, the brief said.

They parked the Jeep in a nearby structure and got a ride home from an acquaintance.

Pineda was pronounced dead moments later.

A Sky Valley resident who had heard the fatal gunshot alerted patrol deputies, who arrived minutes after the Jeep had driven away. The responding deputy located Pineda’s mobile phone with blood on the ground and called 911 via the phone to identify its owner, immediately leading to confirmation from dispatchers that the device belonged to a person who had been checked into the hospital a short time before, according to the brief.

Duran called Pineda’s girlfriend, whose identity wasn’t disclosed, along with the victim’s uncle, also not identified, telling them Pineda had accidentally shot himself while mishandling the firearm, according to prosecutors.

The parties in turn contacted law enforcement, culminating in detectives summoning Duran to the hospital, where he was detained.

He told detectives he’d thrown the gun into desert scrub where the Jeep had been parked in Sky Valley. Despite a search, the weapon was never found.

After the defendant admitted the shooting, he wrote a letter to the victim’s mother, in which he apologized, saying he “didn’t mean to and would never do that to (Pineda) on purpose,” Detective Daniel Cline testified during a 2023 preliminary hearing.

The defense maintained the shooting amounted to, at most, involuntary manslaughter. The judge at the defendant’s preliminary hearing ruled the prosecution’s argument for murder was valid because Duran had become familiar with the firearm in the weeks prior to the shooting and knew what could happen if it went off.

Click here to follow the original article.