Homicide Investigation, Again
Wednesday, March 19 at 8:00 p.m. – 500 block of Montana Avenue – Officers responded to an apartment complex and found the resident dead inside his apartment. It is unknown how long the victim had been dead prior to being discovered. The Police Department issued a release stating that it had received a telephone call from the apartment complex manager, who had gone into the victim’s apartment to check on his well-being after being asked to do so by the victim’s mother, who had not been able to get in contact with her son for several days. The victim has been identified as Alexander Merman, who was 35 years old and lived alone. The cause of death has been determined to be multiple stab wounds to the upper torso. Although this was the second murder victim discovered in four days in Santa Monica, police report that there is nothing that leads the investigators to believe that this case is related to the homicide investigation of Juliana Redding on Centinela Avenue, reported in this space last week.
This is an ongoing investigation and anyone with additional information is encouraged to call the Santa Monica Police Department Detectives at 310.458.8451 (M – F, 8 a.m. – 5 p.m.) or the Watch Commander at 310.458.8427 (24 hours). Anyone wishing to remain anonymous may call the WeTip hotline at 800.78.CRIME (27463).
The Entrepeneur
Monday, March 17 at 4:25 p.m. – 1750 Appian Way parking lot – Officers responded to a call that someone was impersonating a parking lot attendant in a lot that had no attendant. (It was one of those lots where you put your money in the little box with the number corresponding to your numbered parking space.) Upon arriving at the scene of the crime, officers detained the man, and several persons in the lot said that they had paid him to park in the lot; he had even given them receipts and told them to be sure to put the receipt on their dashboard where it could be seen! The enterprising fellow was arrested for theft, and, because he had priors for theft, it was automatically enhanced to felony theft.
In Hot Water
Sunday, March 16 at 7:30 a.m. – 2100 block of Ocean Avenue – The owner of an apartment building went down to the subterranean garage where she saw a man fiddling with the water heaters in the corner. She asked what he was doing; he yelled at her, made as though to move toward her, and fled. Turns out, he had damaged the water heaters such that they had to be replaced to the tune of $3,500. Next day, while the plumbers are installing the new ones, he comes back and yells at the plumbers. They get the owner, who recognizes him and calls the police. He flees on foot, but responding officers detained him in the 2000 block of Main Street. He is identified and arrested for felony vandalism.
