Posted on 08/06/2013 9:57:07 AM PDT by BenLurkin
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — Charges were expected to be filed Tuesday against the Colorado transient accused of killing an Italian honeymooner and injuring 11 others when he drove his car onto the Venice Beach boardwalk.
Nathan Luis Campbell, 38, was arrested Saturday night after he turned himself into authorities. He is accused of purposely driving his Dodge Avenger onto the popular tourist hub at speeds of more than 50 mph.
Campbell is being held on $1 million bail on suspicion of murder and has an arrest record that includes offenses in four different states since 2002.
Alice Gruppioni, 32, was killed, and 11 others were injured in the crash.
Coroner’s Assistant Chief Ed Winter said an autopsy determined that the cause of her death was blunt-force trauma to the head and neck, and it has been classified as a homicide.
Gruppioni’s family arrived in Los Angeles Sunday and released the following statement Monday morning.
“Alice was a remarkable young lady making her personal dreams come true. Born in a very traditional Italian family, she became part of the family’s business when she was only 19. Now at 32, she is a general manager of the key company of the Sira Group, a multinational family owned group. Aside from being a concrete and business oriented person, she never ceased to be the romantic and dreaming girl fantasizing about her bridal gown and her meeting Prince Charming, which she actually did,” Katia Gruppiono, Alice’s aunt, said. “She was robbed of her life while living her dream visit to California with her husband and this was a tremendous injustice.”
Gruppioni’s family was expected to take her body back to Italy Tuesday from a Hollywood Hills funeral home.
If charges are filed against Campbell Tuesday, he will likely appear at the Airport court house sometime in the afternoon
I’ve been thinking—the US has by far the largest percentage of its population in jail for nonpolitical reasons. Yet, we still have a lot of crime.
Is it our society, our culture, our mixed genetic heritage, or our lax justice system? In China, they have a much lower incarceration rate, but no one seems to know what happens to the really criminal types who are arrested.
Don’t want to jump to conclusions but is “transient” the new code for illegal? I am struggling why and American citizen would not already be in jail with his record. It seems that only illegals have access to the get out of jail free card.
CRASH?!?!?!?!?!?!? WTF are they smokin’?
I’ve always understood transient to be code for roaming bum. It says he was arrested four times in the last 11 years, but I don’t see what for. They could be misdemeanors.
Maybe the guy was hungry and needed serious medical care, so he figured he would do a crime, so he could go to prison, where he will get 3 meals a day, a warm place to sleep, and the best health care money can buy.
The only thing about his record the excerpt mentions is four arrests since 2002. That's not necessarily that much of a record dependindg on what the charges were and whether any of those arrests resulted in conviction.
Maybe he brought it on credit.
Odd how the LA Coroner releases this “cause of death” within 3 days, but when Michael Hastings explodes at 4am heading southbound toward LAX and also toward Wilshire Community Pol. e Station (farther south along Highland, the street he crashed on), the same Coroner has taken 2 months.... to announce nothing.
They’ve told cops and firemen “Don’t answer questions about the Hastings crash.”
Perhaps the Coroner fears he’ll drop dead of arsenic poisoning like (deceased) LA Coroner technician, Michael Cormier, did the day his office released the Breitbart autopsy report.
Then he should have pissed on a parking meter and punched out the responding cop. Same result and a modicum of respect while in prison. Why kill innocents?
The Avenger was around from 1995 to 2000, and then came back in 2008. The picture, however, of this wreck shows it was a newer model. They aren't cheap, but not outrageous, either. They start at just under $20,000. Maybe he "bought" it using fraudulent means, with no intent to re-pay the note. His criminal history wouldn't rule that out.
“...no one seems to know what happens to the really criminal types who are arrested.”
Do you really want to know? I would imagine it’s summary execution.
My point is that here, we practically have a catch and release program for all but the most heinous criminals. Street thugs aren’t afraid of jail or punishment, for the most part, especially young ones. “What can you do to me—send me to juvie?”
Who knows, usual think of transient as a PC way of saying bum. Usually mentally ill.
Nice car, though. : /
To answer that question, you would have to get inside his warped mind. Criminals do not think the way you and I do. He may have mental issues too, but I have been watching these people for 25 years, and I have yet to figure them out.
Partly because in the US we have a heterogeneous population. In China and Japan, were the populations are homogeneous, crme is lower.
I’ve been thinking—the US has by far the largest percentage of its population in jail for nonpolitical reasons. Yet, we still have a lot of crime.That's because we house them, educate them, and feed them well. Where other countries treat them like animals, beat them, execute them or chop off their hands etc....You'll notice the beatings, the execution rate or the lopping off of extremities or the prison conditions is never mentioned in the stats you were led to beleive about how cruel we are.
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