NYLAH FRANCO-TORREZ - 3 yo - San Bernardino CA

As a child struggled to live at Loma Linda University Medical Center,
the teen accused of shooting her pleaded not guilty to all charges
against him in San Bernardino Superior Court today.


San Bernardino County District Attorney Michael A. Ramos filed one
count of murder, and seven counts of attempted murder, coupled with
applicable special allegations of use of a firearm, use of a firearm
causing great bodily injury and personal infliction of great bodily
injury against Brandon Taray Barnes, 19, of San Bernardino, according to
the DA’s office.


If convicted, Barnes faces 305 years to life in prison.



Police say that on Sept. 13, a gunman opened fire at a home in the
1300 block of N. D Street. Nylah Franco-Torrez, 3, was killed. Another
child and a pregnant woman at the home were seriously injured.


According to police reports, the gunman fired on the house because he
was angry that someone at the home had come to the aid of a woman the
suspect had tried to assault.


Nylah and 21-year-old La-Donna Howie and Howie's 4-year-old daughter,
Justine, were struck by the gunfire, according to several news reports.


Barnes has court dates scheduled for Sept. 26 and 28 in Department S22. His bail is set at $2,000,000.


“As the District Attorney, let me be clear about one thing, the
killing of babies in our community will not be tolerated,” Ramos said
through a written statement. “The defendant in this matter will be
prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”


The surviving victims remain hospitalized.
http://lomalinda.patch.com/articles/teen-charged-with-murder-of-local-toddler

Family, friends mourn slain San Bernardino 3-year-old

Melissa Pinion-Whitt, The (San Bernardino County) Sun
Posted: 09/22/2011 11:22:32 AM PDT

Nylah Franco-Torrez s family pays their respects during her memorial service Thursday at Harrison-Ross Mortuary in San Bernardino. (Al Cuizon/Staff Photographer)

Photo Gallery: Memorial Service for Nylah Franco-Torrez

SAN BERNARDINO - Nylah Franco Torrez cherished girlie things, the movie "Avatar" and Minnie Mouse.

Reminders of the slain 3-year-old San Bernardino girl were everywhere as 200 people gathered at Harrison-Ross Mortuary to say farewell to her Thursday.

"She made us feel loved," her mother, Jessyca Franco, wrote in a letter that was read at Nylah's funeral.

Flower arrangements in the chapel included blue flowers in the shape of a high-heel shoe and another shaped like a purse. Images of the child with family members flashed across a television screen.
Relatives wore T-shirts with pictures of Nylah, some with "Stop the Violence" and peace symbols on the back. A young boy wore a black shirt with characters from "Avatar."

But amid the images of better times, family and friends also remembered the violent act that killed the young girl.

Nylah, La-Donna Howie, 21, and Howie's 4-year-old daughter, Justine Aguilar, were shot in front of their home in the 1300 block of North D Street on Sept. 12. Howie, who is pregnant, and her daughter suffered serious wounds.

"This is our city. This is our home. The violence must stop," said 2nd Ward Councilman Robert Jenkins.

Vince Ortega, a Victory Outreach pastor, described the night he was called by San Bernardino police to help the grieving family.

When he came to their home, he found friends and relatives angered by the attack.

"They wanted revenge, but I told them, `God is our avenger,"' he said.

Local activist Barbara Babcock encouraged the gathering to help Nylah's family for years to come.

She said the family of 11-year-old Anthony Ramirez of San Bernardino, who was shot and killed in 2006, hasn't fared well since his death.

Babcock said she ran into Ramirez's mother two years after the murder and the woman started to cry when asked if she needed help with Christmas presents.
"She said, `I hope I have electricity and water."'

Babcock worked with the city to pay for the family's utilities and get them some gift certificates.

Eric Martinez and other members of Nylah's family thanked the community for its support since the shooting.

"Although we suffered a great loss, our family is strong," Martinez said. "It brought us all together."

Howie, who suffered a bullet wound to her neck and jaw, has been out of the hospital since last week.

Justine, who received a head wound, remained at Loma Linda University Medical Center,where she was brought out of a medically induced coma on Sunday.
"They don't know how much brain damage she has, but we believe she is paralyzed on her left side," said Sophia Cardona, the child's great-grandmother.

Doctors plan to transfer the girl to Children's Hospital Los Angeles for further treatment.



Read more: http://www.sbsun.com/ci_18954083?source=most_viewed#ixzz1YnlroeI8

SAN BERNARDINO: Man to stand trial in slaying of girl, 3




Police say a call to a man to stop hitting a woman led to the killing of a 3-year-old girl



RICHARD K. De ATLEY/STAFF PHOTO


Brandon Taray Barnes sits in a San Bernardino County courtroom awaiting a hearing. He was held over for trial on one count of murder and seven counts of attempted murder in a September shooting that killed 3-year-old Nylah Franco-Torrez and wounded two others. No photos of Barnes' face were permitted.

April 19, 2012; 10:37 AM

A judge Thursday ordered a 19-year-old man to trial on charges he killed a 3-year-old San Bernardino girl during a street shooting that sprayed bullets into a front yard where the child was playing.

Brandon Taray Barnes, also of San Bernardino, is charged with one count of murder and seven counts of attempted murder in the Sept. 12 shooting that killed Nylah Franco-Torrez and wounded two others on the 1300 block
of San Bernardino’s North D Street.

Superior Court Judge Douglas N. Gericke ordered Barnes to an April 26 arraignment. Police said the shooting was a payback. A man who was with others at the home had earlier stopped Barnes from slapping a woman during a street
confrontation.

Under questioning by Deputy District Attorney William Lee at the short preliminary hearing, three San Bernardino
police detectives who investigated the case outlined the deadly evening through evidence and witness interviews they had gathered. One detective testified that Barnes had admitted to the shooting during a police interview. Barnes, whom authorities have identified as a gang member, has pleaded not guilty, and could face 305 years to life in prison if convicted on all charges.

One witness told police he saw a man walk into the front yard next to the home and then saw what he called “a fireball coming from his hand” — the pistol’s muzzle flash — as several members of the extended family and their friends who had gathered for dinner dove for cover.

About 45 minutes before the gunfire, husband and wife Jerry and La-Donna Howie were walking back to Jerry Howie’s relatives’ home from a neighborhood store when they came upon a man striking a woman in the middle of nearby 13th Street. Jerry Howie yelled at the man to stop, police Detective John Munoz quoted a witness as saying.

“There was no physical confrontation; they just shouted at each other,” Munoz said the witness told him. The same witness later identified a photo of Barnes as the man involved in the street incident.

Jerry Howie recounted that he had yelled at a tall, thinly built black man, “Stop hitting her, she’s a girl,” and the man walked away. Two other men appeared to join him moments later, Detective Mike Vasilis testified. The woman, bleeding from her nose, declined the couple’s help. The Howies went on to the D Street home.

It was shortly after that another family member, seated on the front porch, noticed a tall, thin adult black male across the street from the home. He crossed D Street at a diagonal to the front yard of a house next door, south of where the family had gathered, said Detective Richard Everett in his testimony.

Vasilis said Jerry Howie, sitting on the front porch with La-Donna and others, recognized him as
the same man he had confronted earlier. The Howies had just been describing the incident on 13th Street to others on the porch.

As the man walked across the street toward the next-door yard, no words were exchanged, Vasilis said Howie told him.

The man stood next to a tree and started shooting, witnesses told police.

Nylah, playing in the front yard, was hit in the chest and killed.

La-Donna Howie, who was then five months pregnant, was struck in the neck, and her daughter, Justine Aguilar , also 3, was wounded in the head.

The gunman ran away. Barnes was arrested a few days later, two blocks from the shooting site.
During a police interview, “He said it was him that did the shooting,” Vasilis testified.

Under questioning from Deputy Public Defender Celia Torres, Vasilis said the alleged confession came toward the end of a three-hour interview.

The defense called no witnesses.

Because Howie chose both a photo of Barnes and another picture from a lineup, Torres said there was an “identification issue” and successfully got Gericke to rule no news media photos could be taken of Barnes’ face.

Relatives of Nylah and others who were at the home on Sept. 12 were at the hearing Thursday but declined to comment outside court. Prosecutor Lee said he had no recent update on how the wounded were doing. At the time
of the shootings, relatives said La-Donna Howie’s unborn child was safe.

It’s a tough neighborhood.

In addition to six bullet holes in the home from the shooting that killed the girl, there were five bullet holes from a separate incident in June 2011, according to a chart of bullet strikes presented as an exhibit during the hearing.

Gericke ordered Barnes to an April 26 arraignment.

http://www.pe.com/local-news/san-bernardino-county/san-bernardino-county-headlines-index/20120419-san-bernardino-man-to-stand-trial-in-slaying-of-girl-3.ece

Shooter Convicted in Death of Three-Year-Old
Posted: 11:17 am, February 20, 2014 by Lee Brown

SAN BERNARDINO – A gang member, accused of a 2011 shooting that took the life of a three-year-old girl, was convicted of the crime last week.

Authorities said this week that the sentence for Brandon Taray Barnes, 21, will be held on March 28. Barnes could face multiple life terms after a jury reached the conclusion, announced last Friday in San Bernardino County Superior Court. His conviction includes one count of murder and seven counts of attempted murder. Nylah Franco-Torrez was killed while a three-year-old cousin and her pregnant aunt injured during the shooting on Sept. 12, 2011.

Police said the confrontation began when Nylah’s uncle, Jerry Howie, witnessed Barnes beating a woman at a residence around the corner. The woman escaped the beating, said police, when Howie intervened.

About one hour later, while Howie and his family gathered on their front porch, with Nylah playing in the front yard, Barnes walked past the property and began shooting at the home in the 1300 block on North D Street. Howie’s three-year-old daughter, Justine, survived the shots, along with La-Donna Howie, who was five months pregnant. She was struck in the neck and jaw, but the fetus was not injured. Howie’s niece Nylah, however, was killed.

Three days later, police arrested Barnes, who did not testify during his trial, though his statements to police were played for the jury. He admitted firing the shots but told investigators he was trying to shoot over the house. The bullet strikes, meanwhile, were directly into the house, said reports.

Investigators determined that the shooting was not gang-related, but merely a reaction to Howie, who was not struck by any of the shots, for putting a stop to the earlier beating.

The shooting received a great deal of local and regional publicity, including plenty of attention on Los Angeles-area TV news stations.

Read More:

LATimes: Teenage gang member held in toddler’s slaying

Press Enterprise: Man convicted of murdering 3-year-old

http://www.crimevoice.com/shooter-convicted-in-death-of-three-year-old/