Suicide

LOS ANGELES ? Deputy Dist. Atty. John Monaghan told jurors during closing arguments Wednesday that Juan Manuel Alvarez never intended to commit suicide when he drove his SUV onto train tracks at Chevy Chase Drive, having instead perpetrated the 2005 Metrolink train derailment that killed 11 and injured more than 180 passengers as an attention grabbing . Alvarez is charged with 11 counts of murder with special circumstances and one count each...

LOS ANGELES — An emotional Cynthia Alvarez told jurors Thursday of her brother’s erratic behavior beset by swift mood swings and violent proclivities as she testified at his murder trial. Juan Manuel Alvarez is charged with 11 counts of murder with special circumstances and one count each of train wrecking and arson for causing the Jan. 26, 2005, Metrolink train wreck that killed 11 people and left nearly 200 others injured. Juan Manuel Alvarez’s unpredictable behavior, which may have been aided by an addiction to methamphetamine, resulted in violent outbursts toward his family and hallucinations that his wife, Carmen, was cheating on him, his sister said.

Glendale is more than 1,600 miles from South Sioux City, Neb., but on Wednesday, Hoover High School student Lauren Arana overcame the constraints of distance to help save a friend who was trying to commit suicide in the central United States. Lauren, who is 14 and a ninth-grader at Hoover, woke up early on Wednesday to get to a 7 a.m. class. As she was getting ready, she got a text message on her cell phone from one of her closest friends, whom she had met when she lived in South Sioux City two years ago. The message in the text read, “OMG . .

LOS ANGELES — More than three years after a train crash near Chevy Chase Drive left 11 passengers dead, prosecutors told a jury Monday that a mentally unstable and drug-addled Juan Manuel Alvarez intentionally caused the fiery crash in an attempt to reconcile with his estranged wife. “He needed to do something big to get her attention,” Deputy Dist. Atty. Cathryn Brougham said during the trial’s first day. “He chose to kill 11 strangers.” Pictures of the wreckage and mangled bodies of the 11 victims were displayed during opening statements as family members of the dead openly wept in the packed Los Angeles courtroom Monday.

GLENDALE — A judge on Thursday refused to dismiss charges against 29-year-old Juan Manuel Alvarez, who is accused of causing a 2005 Metrolink derailment that killed 11 people and injured nearly 200 others. Los Angeles Superior Court Judge David S. Wesley rebuffed defense attorneys’ claims that not enough evidence had been given to the court at a May 2005 pretrial hearing where Alvarez was ordered to stand trial. Alvarez was charged with 11 counts of murder with special circumstances and one count each of arson and train wrecking.

Providence High softball Coach Austin Gibson figured Flintridge Prep wouldn’t expect the unexpected. In one fell swoop, a suicide-squeeze bunt that traveled about five feet allowed Providence to earn its most dramatic win of the season and, in turn, shock Flintridge Prep. Missy Valdes laid down the bunt with two outs in the bottom of the seventh inning with the bases loaded to give Providence a 4-3 victory against Flintridge Prep on Wednesday afternoon in a nonleague game at Olive Park’s Lloyd Thomas Field.

BURBANK ? Providence High softball Coach Austin Gibson figured Flintridge Prep wouldn?t expect the unexpected. In one fell swoop, a suicide-squeeze bunt that traveled about five feet allowed Providence to earn its most dramatic win of the season and, in turn, shock Flintridge Prep. Missy Valdes laid down the bunt with two outs in the bottom of the seventh inning with the bases loaded to give Providence a 4-3 victory against Flintridge Prep on Wednesday afternoon in a nonleague game at Olive Park?

A 21-year-old La Crescenta man was fatally struck by a vehicle in the early morning hours on Monday on the eastbound lanes of the 210 freeway. According to Los Angeles County homicide Detective Boyd Zumwalt, the death is an apparent suicide. At 1:29 a.m. the victim was struck by a Toyota Camry on the eastbound Foothill 210 freeway west of the Ocean View Boulevard exit. Witnesses reported that the man ran out of the bushes, on the side of the freeway, into oncoming traffic.