Santa Monica experienced only one homicide this year, down dramatically from last year, when there were seven. Authorities haven’t charged anyone with the murder; however, police suspect Arthur Archuletta, 21, allegedly killed his neighbor, 19-year-old Jalonnie Carter. Carter was shot in the back while he was walking in an alley east of 20th Street on Sept. 2. Police arrested Archuletta for second-degree murder three days after the shooting. Nearly a week after his arrest, the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office decided not to file charges against Archuletta on the grounds that police hadn’t gathered enough evidence. However, Archuletta remained in jail for a few more weeks on an unrelated parole violation. He was released within a month of his arrest and was living at his mother in Santa Monica.
But Archuletta was arrested again by Santa Monica Police on Nov. 22, after officers found a firearm in the car in which he was riding. Archuletta was charged with being an ex-felon in possession of a firearm and parole violation. SMPD is waiting for results to come back from a crime lab to determine if the firearm found in the car Archuletta was riding in is related to any other shootings in the Los Angeles or Santa Monica areas.
Archuletta had been free for only approximately two months before he became the focus of the investigation. Archuletta, who was first convicted in Marin County in 2002 for attempting to smuggle a controlled substance into a jail, was paroled from a minimum-security prison this past July.
And although Carter’s death was the only homicide this year, his eastside neighborhood has had its share of crime. Throughout the year, incidents of drive-by shootings and stray bullets have been commonplace.
Police responded to close to a dozen shots-fired calls, most believed to be gang related. In some cases, people were struck by bullets, but no one was seriously injured.
On May 9, a stray bullet went through two walls and hit a dresser in a bedroom of a home in the 1800 block of 17th Street. The woman who lives there with her four children brought pictures to a community meeting to show how the violence has affected her and her family.
The violence continued to flare up in May and June when shots were fired in five separate incidents within a month in the Pico neighborhood. Based on its own investigation and information provided by parole and probation officers, SMPD conducted several searches within the neighborhood that resulted in the arrests of eight people for parole and probation violations. They were sent back into the prison system, and weapons were recovered in some of the searches.
Although it’s unknown if any of the suspects were formally charged with the gunshots, they were taken out of the community and forced to answer to their parole and probation officers, as well as to the board of prison terms. It’s a tactic that the SMPD believes is effective and despite criticism from some in the community who say it’s unjust or unfair, police defend their policies.
Shortly after the shootings this summer, residents took to the streets and demanded peace. They also have held a series of community meetings to figure out how to work with City Hall officials and police to end the violence.
The SMPD continues to patrol the neighborhood, which has been plagued with gang activity and drug dealing for years, to deter more violence from occurring. SMPD Chief James T. Butts Jr. recently instituted a “Neighborhood Centered Policing” program designed to allow high-ranking officers to work closely with community members.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on December 31, 2003. Read the original PDF.