The suspect in a July 4 knife attack that killed two people and injured three others in Southern California has been charged with murder.
Logan Kelley, 26, is charged with two counts of murder, three counts of attempted murder, one count of assault with a deadly weapon and one count of assault on a police officer, the Orange County District Attorney’s Office said. in a statement.
According to Orange County Sheriff’s Department inmate records, Kelley was assigned as an attorney to the regional public defender’s office, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday night.
He was scheduled to appear in court on Tuesday. It was unclear what happened during the hearing or what happened at the previous hearing scheduled for Monday.
Prosecutors allege that Kelley was drinking and taking hallucinogenic drugs before the stabbing spree in Huntington Beach.
The suspect approached a group of Independence Day celebrants who were watching fireworks being lit in the street and began randomly stabbing people shortly after 11 p.m., prosecutors alleged.
The deceased were identified by the prosecutor’s office as Eric Hodges, 42, who was stabbed in the heart, and William Collins, 47, who was stabbed in the lung and neck. The three injured victims, two 35-year-old men and the 65-year-old father of one of them, were hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries, the office said.
“Kelley is not believed to have had any prior relationship with the group prior to the attack,” Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer’s office said.
Although the attack was described by Spitzer as having come amid “a day of celebration of America and all the freedoms we all enjoy,” the violence occurred far from the city’s sanctioned Independence Day events, which included fireworks. over the ocean, a parade on Main Street and a block party along the same thoroughfare.
The location of the attack, indicated by authorities as the intersection of 16th Street and Pecan Avenue, is home to multifamily housing complexes far from the beach and commercial district.
Police and prosecutors have not yet said what they believe motivated the violence.
Murder charges bring with them allegations of special circumstances that, if proven, could pave the way for the death penalty or, at the very least, life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat who generally favors justice reform and sending fewer people to the state’s once-overcrowded prisons, imposed a moratorium on death sentencing in 2019 and ordered the dismantling of the state’s death row in 2022.
Spitzer, a Republican, said he nevertheless convenes a special committee to evaluate the possibility of death in each local case prosecuted with allegations of murder under special circumstances.
“We as Americans should be able to enjoy time with our friends and family without worrying about the possibility of being brutally stabbed in the street in a random attack,” Spitzer said in a statement from his office.
Five counts of personal use of a deadly weapon in a crime were also included as sentencing enhancements that could add a year in prison to each count, according to case records, state law and the district attorney’s office.
The allegations of assault and battery with a deadly weapon stem from Kelley allegedly spitting on a responding officer and assaulting a teenager who was part of a group that detained him for police, the office said.
Kelley was being held without bail or bond.
This story originally appeared on NBCNews.com read the full story
