Husband of Catholic Bishop David O’Connell’s housekeeper accused of killing him

The Daily Breeze ^ | 2/20/2023 | Josh Cain, Clara Harter, Brian Rokos, Christina Merino

[married21]

The husband of a housekeeper for the Catholic bishop found shot to death over the weekend in his Hacienda Heights home was arrested for the slaying on Monday, Feb. 20, Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna said.

A tipster had told authorities that the suspect, Carlos Medina, who had also previously worked for Auxiliary Bishop David O’Connell in some capacity, had been behaving oddly and claimed the bishop owed him money, the sheriff said.

[married21]

Husband of the housekeeper is eccentric, seems mentally ill or impaired. Neighbor says the guy is constantly washing his car, even in the rain. And he is always digging in his yard. Not yard maintenance or landscaping. Just digging. He seemed even odder lately and thought the Bishop owed him money. His car was at Bishop’s place on the day of the murder.

[rfp1234]

Drugs are bad...mmm’kay?

[lee martell]

I guess both the police and all the reports are still having problems finding a photograph of the murderer.
Maybe something will show up.

Someone this mentally ‘off’ should not even be permitted to have a gun. When people don’t report strange behavior or wrongful treatment to the cops, there is usually no paper trail to to read by anyone selling guns.

[noiseman]

Someone this mentally ‘off’ should not even be permitted to have a gun.

If someone like that was involuntarily committed as they would have been at one time, then they will have no ability to attack members of the public with a gun, a knife, a car, or their fists. Trying to pass laws to keep every possible implement that could be used to attack someone out of the hands of the crazies can never solve the problem. The problem is the crazy.

[livius]

I don’t know that it was permitted, although he evidently had two guns. But it seems that while neighbors noticed he was nutty and obsessive, he had never had any prior legal problems. And who knows if the guns were even registered.

In any case, he shot the bishop because he claimed the bishop owed him money for handyman work he had done at the residence.

The reason the reporting was slow was because the bishop was shot sitting down in a chair in his bedroom - obviously Medina burst into the house, either because it was unlocked or because he had a key - and they were probably afraid it was suicide and did not want to say murder right off.

I would imagine the angle rapidly proved that, along with all the other indications and the information about Medina’s car being parked out front at the time of the shooting.

I feel bad for Medina’s wife, the house keeper. They were both older, long-time employees. I doubt that she had anything to do with it, and she must feel doubly terrible.

[Albion Wilde]

"O’Connell, who ministered at his South L.A. church for decades, and who in recent years had been praised for his work supporting undocumented immigrants...."

[married21]

Yes. Very normal for Church leaders in LA. They could do more to help poor people in their country of origin, of course. But as long as the US government has open borders there will be those who come here illegally, rather than waiting around for conditions at home to improve.