After more than a month of drama, Adelanto Elementary School District Superintendent Terry Walker last week departed from the post, 17 months after she was promoted from the position of assistant superintendent for human services to interim superintendent while the district was in a state of professional and political turmoil and 15 months after the title of full-fledged superintendent was conferred on her by a lame duck school board.
Walker left officially last Friday, taking with her a $421,173 payout, equal to 18 months of her salary.
Walker was doomed with the district virtually from the outset of her acceptance of the promotion to interim superintendent, as she acceded to having the district take several actions with intense political overtones that ultimately drove a wedge between her and three of the five members of the school board to whom she was answerable. While she scored two substantial promotions within her first five months with the district, her status was based on a highly flawed foundation that was subjected a seismic shift just a month after the contract that was intended by that lame duck board majority to keep her in place for more than three-and-a-half years was hurriedly signed and ratified without full board review.
The difficulties that led to Walker’s departure go back more than a decade, as over the last 14 years, the district has employed nine superintendents, with Darin Brawley leaving as superintendent in 2012, whereupon Richard Bray served as superintendent until 2013 and was followed by Lily DeBlieux, who finished out 2013 and lasted part way into 2014. Edwin Gomez, who was in place from 2014 until 2017, and then Amy Nguyen, from 2017 until 2020, proved out as the two longest-lasting superintendents the district employed in recent years. Continue reading →

Mystery and clarity, conversely, attended both of the Twentynine Palms Planning Commission meetings held this month.
What emerged from both meetings was that a predominant number of the city’s residence are opposed to E-Group Solar’s proposal construct solar power field on roughly 172 acres between Canyon Road and Noel’s Knoll Road.
Shrouded in ambiguity is whether the E-Group Solar is on the verge of suing the city or has threatened to sue the city if approval of the project is not given. While there are indicators that is the case, city officials have given no confirmation that the company or its principals will resort to litigation if the project is denied.
While the planning commission generally meets on either the first or the third Tuesday of the month, this month it met on both February 3 and February 17.
The commission’s agenda for the February 3 meeting made no explicit mention of the solar power project. Nevertheless eight residents showed up at the meeting chamber to address the commission, and the gist of their comments pertained to the E-Group plan. The items specified on the agenda were ones that were not publicly discussed or dealt with by the commission, consisting of a matter or matters rarely considered by the planning commission, the potential of litigation. Under California’s open public meeting law, public panels/governmental board are in most cases required to meet in public subject to a published or posted agenda. Exceptions to that exist when the topic of discussion extends to personnel matters, labor negotiations, security matters, providing instructions to real property negotiators and conference with legal counsel regarding pending litigation. Continue reading →

A concentrated sheriff’s department patrol effort that led to the ticketing of nearly four dozen off-road vehicle operators last month was followed two days later by a federal judges ruling barring off-highway vehicles from over 2,200 miles of the west Mojave Desert.
Some off-road enthusiasts, who emphasized that they are strong supporters of both the Trump Administration and law enforcement generally say they feel betrayed. The proximate timing of what occurred in late January was suspicious, they say, and an indication that the liberal forces that dominate Sacramento and state government have made inroads on the offices of federal institutions in California.
On Saturday January 24, 2026, what was described as a “massive” social gathering of dirt bike riders and all-terrain vehicle owners and their machines took place at the Juniper Flats Off-Highway Vehicle] [OHV] Area near Deep Creek Road and Artistic Alley in Apple Valley.
A reliable count of the number of civilian vehicles present pegged that number at somewhere over 250 and the number of people between 750 and 1,000. Others said the numbers were substantially larger, with close to 400 different vehicles and bikes there and the number of people exceeding 1,200. Those participating had come from as near as Apple Valley, Victorville, Hesperia, Oro Grande, Silverlakes and Helendale and Oak Hills and as far away as Barstow, Ontario and Rancho Cucamonga. Continue reading →

There is a degree of alarm with regard to the upcoming release of a serial rapist/child molester, particularly in Chino, where he is currently imprisoned.
David Allen Funston, now 64, was actively involved in luring, kidnapping and assaulting girls in the Sacramento area, some as young as four and five years old, in the 1990s.
Funston’s crimes intensified in terms of frequency and seriousness in a two-year period beginning in 1995. According to prosecutors and testimony and evidence presented at his trial, he would children playing outside their homes in the Sacramento suburbs, utilizing candy and toys to get his victims into his vehicle.
Funston, then-33, moved to the Sacramento area suburb of North Highlands after his conviction for sexually assaulting a woman in Colorado. He obtained a job as a marketing associate at a wholesale foods company, and at some point concentrated his assaults on children rather than adults. It is believed he did so because he believed this would reduce the probability of being caught.
With some of his victims, Funston engaged in repeated and excruciating sex acts.
In one case, according to the woman who prosecuted him, he beat a seven year-old girl and when she began to scream and cry, he stuffed her underwear down her throat. He continued to rape her after doing so. Continue reading →

After receiving a $3 million grant from Yuhaaviatam of San Manuel Nation in December, San Bernardino County is advancing critical enhancements at the Pacific Village housing campus using innovative designs to transform both indoor and outdoor spaces into environments that are consistent with the region’s Indigenous heritage to foster healing, wellness and connections.
In June 2025, the county began construction on Phase II of Pacific Village in Highland, California. Phase II will expand the campus into a wellness‑centered environment that will provide vital housing, treatment and wraparound services for some of the county’s most vulnerable residents. Phase II includes 58 permanent supportive housing units, 30 of which are dedicated to very low‑income older adults, along with 32 recuperative care beds for individuals leaving hospitals, a substance use disorder facility with 16 beds, and the continuation of eight interim housing units from Phase I.
“We are grateful to Yuhaaviatam of San Manuel Nation for their generous support of this vital project,” said Board of Supervisors Chairman and Third District Supervisor Dawn Rowe. “This critical funding will assist us in creating a supportive and healing environment so our residents can get the care they need to thrive and maintain long-term stability.” Continue reading →

SUMMONS – (CITACION JUDICIAL)
CASE NUMBER (NUMERO DEL CASO) CIVSB2427251
NOTICE TO:
(AVISO DEMANDADO):
WESTERN APPLIANCES, LLC, a California Limited Liability Company, FRONTIER INVESTMENT GROUP LLC, a California limited liability company; QG A4L, INC., a Nevada Corporation, APPLIANCE 4 LESS, SONGTAO MA an Individual; WEIJUN JIANG an Individual; and ROES 1-20
YOU ARE BEING SUED BY CROSS-COMPLAINANT:
(LO ESTÁ DEMANDANDO EL CONTRADEMANDANTE):
ORIENTAL APPLIANCE LLC, a Utah Limited Liability Company; and DI ZHENG, an individual
NOTICE! You have been sued. The court may decide against you without your being heard unless you respond within 30 days. Read the information below.
You have 30 CALENDAR DAYS after this summons is served on you to file a written response at this court and have a copy served on the plaintiff. A letter or phone call will not protect you. Your written response must be in proper legal form if you want the court to hear your case. There may be a court form that you can use for your response. You can find these court forms and more information at the California Courts Online Self-Help Center (www.courtinfo.ca.gov/selfhelp), your county law library, or the courthouse nearest you. If you cannot pay the filing fee, ask the court clerk for a fee waiver form. If you do not file your response on time, you may lose the case by default, and your wages, money, and property may be taken without further warning from the court.
There are other legal requirements. You may want to call an attorney right away. If you do not know an attorney, you may want to call an attorney referral service. If you cannot afford an attorney, you may be eligible for free legal services from a nonprofit legal services program. You can locate these nonprofit groups at the California Legal Services Web site (www.lawhelpcalifornia.org), the California Courts Online Self-Help Center (www.courtinfo.ca.gov/selfhelp), or by contacting your local court or county bar association. NOTE: The court has a statutory lien for waived fees and costs on any settlement or arbitration award of $10,000 or more in a civil case. The court’s lien must be paid before the court will dismiss the case.
¡AVISO! Lo han demandado. Si no responde dentro de 30 dias, la corte puede decidir en su contra sin escuchar su version. Lea la informacion a continuacion
Tiene 30 DIAS DE CALENDARIO después de que le entreguen esta citación y papeles legales para presentar una repuesta por escrito en esta corte y hacer que se entreque una copia al demandante. Una carta o una llamada telefonica no le protegen. Su respuesta por escrito tiene que estar on formato legal correcto si desea que procesen su caso en la corte. Es posible que haya un formulano que usted puede usar para su respuesta. Puede encontrar estos formularios de la corte y mas información en el Centro de Ayuda de las Cortes de California (www.sucorte.ca.gov), en la biblioteca de leyes de su condado o en la corte que le quede mas cerca. Si no puede pagar la cuota de presentación, pida si secretario de la corta que le de un formulario de exencion de pago de cuotas. Si no presenta su respuesta a tiempo, puede perder el caso por incumplimiento y la corta le podrá quitar su sueldo, dinero y bienes sin mas advertencia.
Hay otros requisitos legales. Es recomendable que llame a un abogado inmediatamente. Si no conace a un abogado, puede llamar a un servicio de referencia a abogados. Si no peude pagar a un a un abogado, es posible que cumpia con los requisitos para obtener servicios legales gratu de un programa de servicios legales sin fines de lucro. Puede encontrar estos grupos sin fines de lucro en el sitio web de California Legal Services, (www.lawhelpcalifornia.org), en el Centro de Ayuda de las Cortes de California, (www.sucorte.ca.gov), o poniendoso en contacto con la corte o el colegio de abogados locales. AVISO: Por ley, la corte tiene derecho a reclamar las cuotas y los costos exentos gravamen sobre cualquier recuperación da $10,000 o mas de vaior recibida mediante un aceurdo o una concesión de arbitraje en un caso de derecho civil. Tiene que pagar el gravamen de la corta antes de que la corta pueda desechar el caso.
The name and address of the court is: (El nombre y la direccion de la corte es):
San Bernardino County Superior Court
8303 Haven Avenue
Rancho Cucamonga, CA 91730
SHORT NAME OF CASE (from Complaint): (Nombre de Caso): Western Appliances LLC -v – Di Zheng et al
CASE NUMBER: (Número del Caso): CIVSB2427251
The name, address and telephone number of plaintiff’s attorney, or plaintiff without an attorney, is: (El nombre, la direccion y el numero de telefono del abogado del demandante, o del demendante que no tiene abogado, es):
Elizabeth Yang, YLO,P.C.
199W.Garvey Ave.,#201
Monterey Park, CA 91754.
T:877-492-645
e-mail: daniel@yanglawoffices.com
DATE (Fecha): October 10, 2025
Published in the San Bernardino County Sentinel on January 30, 2026 and February 6, 13 & 20, 2026.

ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME
CASE NUMBER CIVSB2600522
TO ALL INTERESTED PERSONS: Petitioner SALMA AISHA BELTRAN filed with this court for a decree changing names as follows:
SALMA AISHA BELTRAN to SALMA AISHA GUZMAN
THE COURT ORDERS that all persons interested in this matter appear before this court at the hearing indicated below to show cause, if any, why the petition for change of name should not be granted. Any person objecting to the name changes described above must file a written objection that includes the reasons for the objection at least two court days before the matter is scheduled to be heard and must appear at the hearing to show cause why the petition should not be granted. If no written objection is timely filed, the court may grant the petition without a hearing.
Notice of Hearing:
Date: March 6, 2026 Time: 09:00 AM, Department: S23
The address of the court is Superior Court of California, County of San Bernardino, San Bernardino District-Civil Division, 247 West Third Street, San Bernardino, CA 92415, IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that a copy of this order be published in the SAN Bernardino County Sentinel in San Bernardino County California, once a week for four successive weeks prior to the date set for hearing of the petition.
Dated: 1/23/2026
Judge of the Superior Court: Gilbert G. Ochoa
By Nuna Rivera, Deputy Court Clerk
Published in the San Bernardino County Sentinel on January 30 and February 6, 13 & 20, 2026.

Continue reading →

The Chino Hills City Council voted unanimously on February 10 to elevate Rod Hill, the city’s assistant city manager since August 2019 and the director of administrative services and controller with the City of Whittier for 16 years previous to that, to the position of city manager.
Hill is to move into the top administrative post of San Bernardino County’s southwesternmost city on April 1, the day after Benjamin Montgomery, who has been city manager since April 2019, officially retires on March 31.
According to the announcement by the city issued after the city council’s action, “As assistant city manager, Mr. Hill has been instrumental in managing some of the city’s most complex contracts, divisions, and initiatives. He has overseen the code enforcement, community relations, emergency management, human resources, information technology, and solid waste divisions, as well as risk management.”
The announcement further stated, “A major area of his responsibilities included oversight of the city’s largest and most critical service contracts, including law enforcement services provided by the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department. He led negotiations on the new solid waste services contract and implementation of the city’s transition to a new waste hauler, ensuring continuity of service, regulatory compliance, and a smooth experience for residents and businesses. In addition, Mr. Hill managed contracts for animal care and control services and played a key leadership role in developing and implementing the city’s first homeless services contract.”
City officials touted what they said was Hill’s “strong background in municipal finance and emergency management. He began his career in the finance department with the cities of Brea and Anaheim. He was then selected as assistant finance director for the City of Redlands, where he oversaw information technology, risk management, accounting, and budget.”
With his 2003 hiring by Whittier in the role of administrative services director, he also headed and served as director of the finance and human services department and filled the post of city treasurer. The administrative services director in Whittier also oversaw emergency management and animal control.
Hill has a bachelor of science degree in business administration from the University of La Verne and a master of public administration degree. He holds government accounting and emergency management certificates.
A volunteer with the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department West Valley Search and Rescue Team, Hill previously served as a reserve park ranger in Orange County. He was formerly an adjunct instructor at the California Specialized Training Institute.
Hill and his wife, Laurie, have lived in neighboring Chino for 35 years, and have three adult children and six grandchildren.
“I am very happy to be working for the City of Chino Hills and am excited to put my 31 years of training and experience to use by working along side some very dynamic, skilled, and professional colleagues and city council members,” Hill said. “It’s an honor to serve the residents of Chino Hills.”

Two of San Bernardino County’s leading politicians recently suffered the loss of family members.
Bob Ulloa, the husband of Chino Mayor Eunice Ulloa has died at the age of 87.
Stacey Schooler, the daughter of Yucca Valley Councilman Jim Schooler last month stepped into eternity at the age of 46.
Elements of Bob Ulloa’s life, which was intertwined with politics on many levels, shadowed or paralleled that of his wife, who is currently San Bernardino County’s longest serving elected municipal official.
In 1984, the year Eunice Ulloa first ran fro city council, she was encouraged in her electoral effort by then-Chino Mayor Larry Walker, who was seeking reelection that year. Signing Walker’s nomination papers were both Eunice Ulloa and Bob Ulloa. Both Bob Ulloa and Larry Walker signed Eunice Ulloa’s nomination papers.
Larry Walker, Bob Ulloa and Eunice Ulloa were involved in the campaigns of former Chino Mayor and later State Senator Ruben Ayala.
Both Eunice Ulloa and Bob Ulloa endorsed Walker in his successful 1986 challenge of Gus Skropos for Fourth District San Bernardino County Supervisor. Bob Ulloa went on to become one of Walker’s field representatives.
In 1992, Eunice Ulloa was elected Chino Mayor when Fred Aguiar, another Walker ally, left the post. She served as mayor until 2004, , . Left the a
The Ulloas’ alignment with Walker extended to their association with efforts to control development in Chino. Walker, who was Chino Mayor from 1980 to 1986, was a “slow-growth” and “controlled-growth” advocate, calling for requirements that the entities to profit by development – developers and landowners upon whose property the growt was to take place – defray the cost of infrastructure needed to offset the impact of that development. In the 2017-18 timefram, when the “Protect Chino” group opposed Measure H, an aggressive development initiative, Walker, who had just retired from county politics upon departing as the county treasurer/tax collector/auditor/controller, served as the president of the group, assisted in its effort by Eunice Ulloa, who had recently returned to the post of mayor following a several-years long run as councilwoman while Dennis Yates was mayor. Eunice Ulloa had been a slow-growth advocates in her time on the city council, a position that put her in the minority on the panel. She had voted against placing Measure H on the ballot.
Walker expressed optimism about the City of Chino’s direction in 2018, almost two years after Eunice Ulloa’s return as mayor.
Over the years, both Walker and Ayala were prominent Democrats. It was largely assumed that Bob Ulloa and Eunice Ulloa, too, were Democrats. While there are indications that in the 1970s and 1980s the Ulloas were Democrats and that Bob Ulloa remained a lifelong Democrat, in 1998, when Eunice Ulloa ran unsuccessfully for a position in the California State Senate representing what was then the 32nd District, she did so as a Republican. She is still registered with the GOP.
Ulloa left office in 2004 as the result of a failed campaign for county supervisor, but returned to elective office as a councilwoman two years later. She then served 12 years as a council member before running for and returning to the mayor’s post in 2016. In the 1970s, when she was then going by her maiden name, Eunice Shaffer, she and Bob Ulloa, a Navy veteran seven years her senior, Ulloa were working for what was then one of the region’s largest employers, General Dynamics, in Pomona. They worked in different roles and in different divisions, but met at an employee potluck. They married in June 1975 and moved to Chino, on a 1.1 acre-farm in the north part of the city, five years later. Beside a grand home, the farm featured a barn, a corral and a riding arena, as well as four horses, different types of birds including chickens, tortoises, dogs and cats.
As a Chino resident, Bob Ulloa was a board member and eventually the chairman of the Citizens Advisory Committee for the California Institution for Men.
After retiring from General Dynamics, he served as a field representative for Ayala when the older man was in the California State Senate. He recreated by restoring vintage cars and flying hot air balloons. He was a member of the Chino Hills Lions Club and the Chino Mounted Posse, as was Eunice.
Bob is survived by Eunice and their children Nicole Abarca, Erika Jackson, Robert Ulloa Jr. and Troy Ulloa.
Stacey Schooler was the daughter of Jim Schooler and his first wife, Marlene Price.
She was born on September 19, 1979, in Palm Springs, three years after her parents moved to Yucca Valley. She lived in Yucca Valley most of her life, with the exception of the time she was attending college in Northern California.
She was a graduate of Yucca Valley High School and Copper Mountain College and then obtained a bachelor’s degree in communications at California State University, Chico.
She was employed by the Town of Yucca Valley, State Farm Insurance, Inspire Real Estate and her own Scans by Stacey digital conversion business. Her dream job, which she never quite achieved, was to work for the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Stacey volunteered extensively in community activism with the Joshua Springs Calvary Chapel in Yucca Valley, most notably the Calvary Bible Institute and Joshua Springs worship team. She actively participated in other efforts in support of Miracle League Baseball, Dreams for Kids, JS Thrift Store, Partners Against Violence and the High Desert Pregnancy Clinic.
A passionate Dodgers fan, Stacey overcame significant physical challenges and possessed an engaging personality, social talents few others could match and the ability to enrich the lives of others.
She valued immensely, and was valued by, her family and friends.
Stacey is survived by her mother, Marlene Price, her father, Jim, and stepmom Dawn Schooler; brothers Michael, Jay, Andrew and John; as well as nephews Lucas, Zakk, Evan, Wesley, Joshua and Grant, and niece Zoe; and several aunts, uncles, in-laws and cousins.
A celebration of Stacey’s life, which ended peacefully on January 29, 2026, will be held Saturday, February 21, at 11 a.m. at Joshua Springs Calvary Chapel in Yucca Valley.

The San Bernardino County District Attorney’s Office is pursuing a first degree murder case against a former Ontario-based businessman, more than 29 years after his alleged killing of one of his employees when that employee sought to blackmail him over labor law violations that were taking place at the noodle plant where the alleged murderer was the operations manager.
Woravit Mektrakarn, who has been charged with murder in what is believed to have been the November 23, 1996 death of Luis Osvaldo Diego Garcia, has been the primary suspect in Garcia’s disappearance from the outset. He was arrested two days after Garcia was last seen, but released shortly thereafter when prosecutors felt there was insufficient evidence available at that time to bring him to trial. In short order, Mektrakarn left the United States, fleeing it was believed to either Thailand, the land of his birth, or Cambodia or Burma. It was believed and later established that he was living under a falsified identity between Burma and Cambodia and had been able to transit between those two countries and Thailand largely on the strength of his personal wealth and the social standing of his family. The San Bernardino County District Attorney’s Office, the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of International Affairs, the U.S. State Department, the International Liaison Office of the FBI and Interpol for a quarter of a century conducted a manhunt for Mektrakarn unsuccessfully.
For years, the case lay dormant until in April 2024, an individual believed to be Mektrakarn was observed to be residing in Bangkok under an alias and in disguise. After authorities were alerted, at the request of the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of International Affairs and U.S. Embassy in Bangkok, the Royal Thai Police in Bangkok moved in upon Mektrakarn, who initially claimed a different identity. Thai law enforcement, however, confirmed who he was and held him in custody. Over a period of more than 20 months, an extradition process wound its way through Thai courts. On January 16, 2026, Mektrakarn was extradited to the United States and transported to San Bernardino by the U.S. Marshals Service.
Luis Osvaldo Diego Garcia, born on August 27, 1972 in Veracruz, Mexico, illegally entered the United States through the border at San Ysidro it is believed in April 1993 at the age of 20. He did not register his presence as an alien as required by U.S. Law. He took up residence in home in Ontario among a household of other undocumented immigrants, including two of his cousins. In Ontario, he found employment at noodle factory in that city, Rama Foods, was owned by Wichart Mektrakarn, a wealthy Thai businessman. The Rama Foods operation in Ontario was overseen by Woravit Mektrakarn, who also went by the informal first name Kim. Woravit Mektrakarn was a 1985 graduate of El Camino Real High School in Placentia. Mektrakarn’s wife, Aree, also worked for the the company in a management or administrative capacity.
By 1996, Garcia had been working at Rama Foods for two years, having obtained the job through his cousin, Rene Delgado, who had been working at the plant at least since 1987.   Rene Delgado worked for Rama Foods in the capacity of chauffeur, mechanic, translator, and liaison between the Mektrakarns and the plant workers, the vast majority of whom could not speak English.
The factory’s production workers consisted almost exclusively of undocumented immigrants, working in substandard conditions and provided with low wages at or marginally above minimum wage. Many of the company’s employees worked six days a week and 11-hour to 12-hour days, without being compensated for overtime.
At some point in the late summer or fall of 1996, Garcia became aware that the company was in violation of California’s labor laws, according to court documents, and threatened to report Mektrakarn to the state labor commission. Mektrakarn, in a bargaining session which was translated and in part brokered by Rene Delgado, agreed to pay Garcia $5,000 in exchange for dropping the issue. Mektrakarn paid him $1,000 up front with a promise of further like installments, with the proviso that Garcia keep silent about the deal and not inform any of the other employees at Rama about the arrangement.
Garcia had not returned to Mexico since coming to the United States and had arranged to make a return trip home, having purchased an airline ticket to fly to Veracruz, Mexico on December 8, 1996, so that he could visit his family.
Despite Garcia’s assurance to Mektrakarn that he would remain silent about the $5,000 hush money deal, at least two others who worked at Rama Foods beside Garcia and Rene Delgado – Garcia’s other cousin Francisco Delgado and an individual named Epifanio Flores – learned that Mektrakarn was providing Garcia with money in addition to his wages at the noodle plant, as did another of Garcia’s cousins, Guillermo Ramirez, who was residing in Fontana. Mektrakarn learned that Garcia was not holding up his end of the bargain when Flores began pressing to be paid $5,000.
Guillermo Ramirez, who lived in Fontana and has variously been described as Garcia’s “friend” and “cousin,” was with Garcia earlier in the day on November 23, 1996 at Ramirez’s apartment in Fontana. He testified that Garcia said that he was going to get money from Woravit Mektrakarn that day and Garcia had plans to return to Fontana, where they intended to go out to dinner later that evening. Ramirez testified that Garcia left Ramirez’s apartment in Fontana for Rama Foods between 3 and 4 p.m. on November 23, 1996.
That day, a Saturday, Garcia came to the plant, located at 1486 East Cedar Street in Ontario, to pick up what was supposed to be a $3,000 installment toward the agreed-upon $5,000.
Francisco Delgado later testified that on November 23, 1996, he arrived at the Rama Foods plant at 7:00 a.m. and later that morning drove Mektrakarn to Ontario International Airport to rent a Plymouth Voyager minivan.   According to Francisco, Mektrakarn returned to the plant in the rented minivan at “around 5:00 in the afternoon.”   Rene Delgado testified that he arrived at the plant at 8 a.m., and saw Mektrakarn there at 3 p.m. At that time, Mektrakarn’s usual car, a Honda Passport, was in the parking lot, according to Rene Delgado. At 4 p.m., Mektrakarn told Rene Delgado he was expecting Garcia to arrive.
Francisco Delgado recalled seeing Chansak “Buck” Plengsangtip, the factory manager and close friend and associate of of Woravit Mektrakarn, arrived at Rama Foods at around 4 p.m. Francisco Delgado testified he saw Plengsangtip park his car, a brown or tan Mercedes Benz, in the parking lot and walk toward the offices. According to Ramirez, Garcia left Ramirez’s apartment in Fontana for Rama Foods between 3 and 4 p.m. Rene Delgado saw Garcia at the plant at 5 p.m. Francisco and another employee, Julio Zamudio, saw Garcia arrive at 5 p.m. According to Francisco Delgado, Garcia arrived in his own car and walked toward the office area. Testimony placed Garcia’s car in the plant parking lot until about 5:30 p.m. Zamudio saw Garcia enter the plant area through one of the roll-up doors, and walk toward the office area.
At 5 p.m., Aree Mektrakarn called Rene Delgado into the plant’s north office to translate for Garcia. According to Rene Delgado’s testimony, there were five people in the office other than  himself:  Plengsangtip, Garcia, Woravit Mektrakarn, Aree Mektrakarn and Woravit Mektrakarn’s sister Vicky Mektrakarn. Woravit Mektrakarn and Aree Mektrakarn told Rene Delgado they were going to pay Garcia the rest of the money. Rene Delgado did not witness the payment.   Aree Mektrakarn told Rene Delgado to clean the area in the back of the plant, and Rene Delgado left the office with Aree Mektrakarn. Rene Delgado thought Aree Mektrakarn’s request strange, he later testified, because cleaning was not a part of his normal duties. He also testified that when he was in the office that afternoon, he saw two large, clean metal pots, handcuffs, and a handheld radio, and that when he wanted to return to the office later, Aree Mektrakarn would not allow him back in the office, Rene Delgado did not complete the cleaning assignment. Instead, he left for home at 5:30 p.m. As he did so, he drove by the outside door to the north office and looked through the window. Inside the office, he saw three men, at least two of whom appeared to be hiding or crouching. At that time, Garcia’s, Woravit Mektrakarn’s, and Plengsangtip’s cars were still in the parking lot, according to Rene Delgado, but Woravit Mektrakarn’s rented minivan was no longer there.
Francisco Delgado testified his usual duties included moving everyone’s cars inside the plant premises near the end of the day. Between 6 p.m and 6:30 p.m. on November 23, 1996, he said, he tried to enter the office area to retrieve car keys to move the cars and park them inside the plant’s fenced-in grounds, but Aree Mektrakarn did not allow him in the office area. This was the first time he had not been allowed to move the cars inside the factory yard, Francisco Delgado testified, and he said he left the plant at 7 p.m. At that time, he noticed that Plengsantip’s car was still in the parking lot.
During the afternoon, Woravit Mektrakarn ordered another employee, Julio Zamudio, to stack pallets in front of the south office door. This prevented access to the offices from the plant area. Zamudio used a forklift to begin stacking the pallets, and Woravit Mektrakarn completed the task. The stack was heavy and as high as the top of the office door, according to Zamudio’s later testimony, in which he said the stack was in place before he saw Garcia arrive at 5 p.m. During the 14 years Zamudio worked at the plant, he had never seen a stack of pallets blocking the office door, he testified. Zamudio also testified that another worker at the plant with the first name Adolfo was not allowed to count his sales route money inside the office that afternoon, as Adolfo usually did.
Garcia was not seen by either of his cousins, friends or acquaintances after that. The evening of November 23, 1996, Garcia did not return to Ramirez’s Fontana apartment with the money he said he was going to obtain from Woravit Mektrakarn to go out for the dinner as had been Garcia’s stated intention earlier that day. Both Rene Delgado and Francisco Delgado, who knew Garcia was expecting to receive money from Woravit Mektrakarn on November 23, did not see or hear from him after approximately 5 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. on November 23, 1996 Garcia had a plane ticket for a scheduled flight to Veracruz, Mexico on December 8, 1996, and was intending to visit relatives over the course of several days thereafter, but did not show up at the airport.
At some point on or between late Saturday November 23, Sunday November 24 and the morning of Monday November 25, 1996, the Ontario Police Department was contacted by Francisco Delgado, and by mid-morning November 25, 1996, a homicide investigation was underway.
When Francisco arrived at work on the morning of November 25, he later testified, he entered the plant through the office area and noticed that the carpet was “cut up and dirty.”   It looked as though some liquid had been spilled on it, he told the court, and he said it did not appear that way when he last saw it on Saturday morning, November 23, 1996.
Homicide investigators with the Ontario Police Department were present on the grounds of the Rama Noodle Plant by 9 a.m.  Forensic supervisor Steve Hall arrived at Rama Foods crime at 10:15 p.m., and joined the investigation. When Hall arrived, Woravit Mektrakarn was present and had injuries on both his hands.
Hall testified about several items the police found in a dumpster 50 feet from the office area. Among those were a large metal pot wrapped in two plastic bags. There was ash inside the pot, and it looked as though someone tried to burn evidence in it, according to Hall. The investigators found in the dumpster a plastic bucket with burned carpet inside, and another three pieces of carpet that had been fused together by burning. Hall also found a small, triangular piece of carpet matching a triangular hole found in the south office carpeting, together with a can of lighter fluid with about one inch of liquid inside it, a pair of blue jeans stained white by bleach and with cleaning fluid on them, a yellow glove and pink velvet soap material, the same sort of fluid found on the rug in the north office, and an original fax cover sheet with Plengsantip’s company’s “Lanna Trading” letterhead at the top of it.
According to Hall, a piece of rug from the north office, carpet in the office hallway along the west wall, carpet next to the triangular-shaped hole in the south office and the area inside the office bathroom sink trap all tested positive for the presence of blood or blood stains. Hall also testified that two handguns were found at the scene.
Investigators interpreted the blood evidence to indicate Garcia was standing against the office wall when he was violently attacked, after which he was forcibly moved toward or perhaps dragged down the hallway and assaulted a second time in the bathroom.
The Plymouth Voyager minivan Woravit Mektrakarn had rented was nowhere to be found, and was reported as stolen. Garcia’s vehicle, a gray Tercel, was gone.
Woravit Mektrakarn was arrested for Garcia’s murder. Investigators knew, or had access to information to indicate, that Plengsangtip, Aree Mektrakarn and Vicky Mektrakarn were present in the Rama plant’s office on November 23. They were not taken into custody, however, and it is not clear from the available record as to whether Plengsangtip or Vicky Mektrakarn were interrogated at that time.
When no direct evidence turned up to establish that Garcia was actually dead and no further evidence beyond that in the dumpster or the office was found, prosecutors informed the Ontario Police Department that they had insufficient evidence upon which to convict, and Woravit Mektrakarn was released. In relatively short order, he, Aree Mektrakarn and Vicky Mektrakarn left the United States for Thailand.
On December 4, 1996, Garcia’s grey Tercel car was found in Los Angeles with its key in the ignition and the tank full of gasoline.
The Plymouth Voyager minivan Kim had rented and which National Rent-A-Car had reported stolen, was found in the parking garage of the Rio Hotel in Las Vegas on December 15, 1996, missing its license plates. It was locked, its ignition had not been punched out, and it did not appear to have been broken into. Internally, it smelled of bleach, and there was indication that a substantial amount of bleach had been poured onto the vehicle’s floor and rear compartment.
With Woravit Mektrakarn gone, the Ontario Police Department had no logical progression forward on the case.
One of the Ontario Police Department’s homicide investigators, Byron Lee, maintained an intense interest in the matter. Lee was convinced that Mektrakarn’s virtual immediate departure for Thailand after his release from custody in 1996 could not be interpreted any other way than that he was responsible for Garcia’s disappearance. As a consequence of his dedication, Lee was made the lead investigator. Still, the matter languished for weeks, then months and years.
In 2003, Lee and his team developed a DNA profile for Garcia and thereby, through comparisons with the evidence gathered on November 25, 1996, established the blood on the carpet was Garcia’s. A search of the factory more than six years after the fact was made, with forensic technicians spraying the office with fluorescein. That examination found spatters on the walls, floor and ceiling of the office and in the hallway and bathroom that were not visible previously.
The detectives next aggressively interrogated Plengsangtip, who unlike Woravit Mektrakarn, Mektrakarn’s wife and Mektrakarn’s sister, had not fled the country but was living in Granada Hills. The detectives concluded Plengsangtip was lying about what had occurred on November 23, 1996 and built a case against him, which then-District Attorney Mike Ramos, Assistant District Attorney Mike Fermin and deputy district attorneys Mark Vos and Debbie Ploghaus bought, which held that Plengsangtip was an accessory to Garcia’s murder in that he was present when it occurred even if he did not take part in it and that he had actively assisted Woravit Mektrakern in covering it up.
Plengsangtip’s acknowledgement that he was at the noodle factory on the night of the disappearance was enough, San Bernardino County Superior Court Judge Barry Plotkin in October 2005 ruled, for prosecutors to proceed to trial against Plengsangtip on the accessory charge, despite the defendant’s insistence he knew nothing whatsoever about what befallen Garcia.
In 2006, however, Judge Ingrid Uhler overruled Plotkin, reasoning that Plengsangtip had made no admission of any knowledge of the disappearance or murder and that the district attorney’s office’s presumption that he was lying was just that – a presumption – and insufficient, without any further evidence of Plengsangtip’s involvement or knowledge of a crime, insufficient as the basis for prosecuting him as being an accessory to a murder, which had yet to be established as having occurred.
Rather than taking Judge Uhler’s ruling as an indication that there were gaps in their case, the district attorney’s office thereafter appealed her ruling to the Fourth Appellate District, arguing that there were grounds to indicate that something violent had occurred on the grounds of the noodle factory on November 23, 1996 and that Plengsangtip, as the manager of operations there and who acknowledged he was present, lacked credibility when he told investigators that he knew nothing about what had occurred that day. While someone cannot be prosecuted for having knowledge about a crime and not reporting it to authorities, Plengsangtip crossed the line when he actively lied about what went on at the noodle plant, prosecutors said.
At Plengsangtip’s May trial, which began on May 5,2008, Ploghaus alleged, and Plengsangtip acknowledged, he was present on the Noodle factory grounds on November 23, 1996 and in the plant’s office. The accessory to murder charges were supported by the testimony of more than eight witnesses, at least two of whom testified they saw Plengsangtip or his car at the factory when Garcia arrived to pick up his money and two of whom placed him in or around the office where the murder was alleged by the prosecution to have taken place at the approximate time Garcia was last seen. Two witnesses explicitly said Plengsangtip was in the office with Garcia and Woravit Mektrakarn.
According to Ploghaus, when Plengsangtip was confronted by homicide investigators, more than six years after Garcia’s disappearance, there were inconsistencies in his statements that strongly indicated he was lying about his knowledge of the crime to protect his friend, Woravit Mektrakarn. The evidence that a murder had taken place in the office was overwhelming when investigators and forensic technicians examined it on November 25, 1996, at which point an extensive effort to clean the crime scene had taken place. Plengsangtip’s statements that he was not aware of what had happened while witnesses placed him in the area where it occurred, which had blood scattered all about it, at around the same time that Garcia disappeared was not credible, she argued.
Plengsangtip, while not disputing he was there, insisted he had seen nothing out of the ordinary at the noodle plant on November 23, 1996 and that he was at the office only for a very brief time on that Saturday, since he had come there to meet up with Woravit Mektrakarn so they could take a recreational trip to Las Vegas. As it turned out, Woravit Mektrakarn was otherwise engaged, Plengsangtip said, so he left the noodle plant grounds.
Ploghaus was unable to provide an exact time of death or produce a body. She did not make anything of the fact that the Plymouth Voyager minivan leased by Woravit Mektrakarn ended up in Las Vegas on December 15, 1996, having been abandoned there for several days, and that Plengsangtip said he was in the gambling Mecca less than three weeks previously.
About a day after concluding arguments in the case were delivered, the eight-man, four-woman jury on May 14, 2008 acquitted Plengsangtip.
The entire case thereafter remained pretty much dormant for more than a decade-and-a-half.
American and Thai authorities, however, were on the lookout for Woravit Mektrakarn, who eluded capture in large measure based upon his family’s wealth and social standing and his use of different identities under which he was able to frequently transit between Thailand, Cambodia and Myanmar.
In April 2024, the Royal Thai Police in Bangkok, who were acting on a tip and special request from the United States Embassy and the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of International Affairs, apprehended Woravit Mektrakarn, who was living under an alias and in disguise. He remained in custody thereafter but after all of the efforts by his legal team had been exhausted, on January 16, 2026, he was extradited to the United States.
On January 22, 2026, Woravit Mektrakarn was arraigned in Rancho Cucamonga Superior Court on the charge of murder and pleaded not guilty. The motion for bail was denied, with the court finding clear and convincing evidence that no conditions could reasonably protect the public or ensure the defendant’s appearance.
“This case demonstrates our unwavering commitment to pursuing justice, no matter how much time has passed,” said District Attorney Jason Anderson. “It also stands as a testament to the extraordinary efforts and partnerships of law enforcement agencies across the globe, whose dedication made this outcome possible.”
Anderson made his confident statement, more than 17 years after the district attorney’s office took its best shot at Plengsangtip and missed, partially because of what was then the passage of more than 11 years since the crime. Anderson appears to believe, or says he believes, that 29 years after the events in question, his office can establish to all 12 members of a jury beyond reasonable doubt and to a moral certainty that Woravit Mektrakarn killed Luis Osvaldo Diego Garcia, despite Garcia’s body having never been found.
A pre-preliminary hearing for Mektrakarn is scheduled for February 17, 2026, at 8:30 AM in Department R15 at the Rancho Cucamonga Superior Courthouse.