Suspects in 3 Slayings May Have Kidnaped 6 Others, Who Escaped

Four suspects arrested in the abduction-slayings of three people in the San Gabriel Valley may have kidnaped as many as six others--all of whom escaped--in a crime rampage that lasted throughout the summer, authorities said Tuesday.

At least one of the suspects may be linked to a fourth murder. The as-yet-unidentified victim was kidnaped and slain in July after a minor traffic accident was staged on a freeway, according to Deputy Dist. Atty. John Urgo. The victim’s car was stolen.

“Somewhere along the line, they escalated,” Urgo said of the crimes that have sparked fears in shoppers after two of the victims were abducted from the Puente Hills Mall in City of Industry.

The two men and two women accused of the deadly rampage seemed unremorseful Tuesday as they were taken, shackled, into Citrus Municipal Court in West Covina.

Vincent Hubbard, 26, stuck his tongue out at reporters and photographers in the courtroom, while his girlfriend, Robin Machuca, 26, laughed and giggled when Judge Fred Felix set Sept. 13 as the date for the group’s preliminary hearing.

“It didn’t seem like she had a care in the world,” Urgo said afterward.

Hubbard, Machuca, Machuca’s brother, John Lewis, 21, and Lewis’ pregnant girlfriend, Eileen Huber, 20, all face the death penalty in connection with the murders and abductions of two women and one man.

The victims were:

* Willie Newton Sams, 40, of West Covina, who was shot Aug. 18 as he headed to a bank teller machine. His body was thrown in a schoolyard dumpster.

* Elizabeth Nisbet, 49, of Diamond Bar, who was abducted from the Puente Hills Mall on Aug. 24 and shot alongside the San Gabriel River Freeway in Irwindale.

* Shirley Denogean, 56, of Claremont, who was taken from the Puente Hills Mall on Aug. 27. Her body was dumped along the Pomona Freeway in El Monte.

The four suspects were charged Tuesday with murder, robbery and kidnaping. They are being held without bail and will be back in court Thursday to have attorneys appointed for them by the public defender’s office.

Lewis, a small man with a goatee, was the only one of the four charged in the deaths of all three named victims. “As far as the evidence goes, he was the most active,” Urgo said.

Machuca was charged with the murders of Sams and Nisbet. Hubbard was charged in Sams’ death and Huber was charged in Denogean’s death.

A fifth suspect, Derrick Deveon Colbert, 27, was arrested Monday and is being investigated for links to Lewis and the possible fourth murder, Urgo said.

The evidence does not appear to link Colbert to the murders of Sams, Nisbet or Denogean, Urgo said, adding that charges may be filed in the fourth murder later this week. Urgo had no details on that crime other than that a fender-bender occurred on a San Gabriel Valley freeway in early July. When the driver got out to exchange insurance information and examine the damage, he was abducted and his car was taken, officials said.

Meanwhile, investigators from the Sheriff’s Department and the West Covina police have been investigating possible links to at least six other kidnaping-robberies in the area, Urgo said. “There are more witnesses than I can count,” he said.

Attorney Gerald Gornik, who has represented Machuca previously on criminal charges and met her brother, Lewis, said he could not believe the two might be involved in the string of murders. He characterized Machuca as “a nice girl, respectful, intelligent.” Gornik said Lewis did not seem “capable of this kind of thing”

Although both have been in court previously on criminal charges, he said, neither was “hard-core.”

Meanwhile, the father of a man killed by West Covina police serving a search warrant protested his son’s death as a brutal case of mistaken identity.

A West Covina SWAT team shot and killed Darryl Stephens, 27, when they mistakenly believed he was reaching for a weapon, according to police. But Stephens’ father, a well-known figure in local boxing circles, said his son “never had a chance.”

“They just went in there and shot him,” said Antonio (Tony) Curtis Stephens, who is the boxing matchmaker at the Forum in Inglewood.

Curtis said police arrested and released his son’s roommate on Friday. Then, he said, officers went to his son’s apartment saying they wanted to search for a gun.

Curtis said his son told officers he would not allow them to search his apartment without a warrant. The officers left, returning Monday at 2 a.m. with the warrant. After receiving no response, officers said they burst into the apartment and shot Stephens when he allegedly reached under his mattress. No gun was found in the bedding, but other weapons were seized in the apartment.

The apartment is in the same complex where the four suspects lived, but police said Stephens was not considered a suspect.

Curtis said his family intends to take legal action, and he questioned why it took a 14-member SWAT team to serve a search warrant.

He said he believes the police were after the roommate, whom Curtis knows only as “Detroit.” Both Detroit and a second roommate dropped out of sight after the Friday arrest, and Curtis said he had urged his son on Sunday to stay with his parents for the weekend.

“I told him, come stay with me,” Curtis recalled. “But he said, ‘I’m not leaving my house. I haven’t done anything (wrong). . . . If they want to search my house, let them get a warrant. It’s a matter of principle.’ ”

The only criminal offense to appear in Stephens’ records was a felony drug possession and misdemeanor drug use in March, 1989. Disposition of the case was not available.