NORWALK - Following less than two days of deliberations, a Norwalk jury Tuesday recommended that a Whittier man be put to death for luring would-be used car buyers to his home, then fatally shooting and robbing the men.Cimarron Bernard Bell, 37, will be formally sentenced June 21 by Judge Dewey Falcone. Bell was convicted on April 5 of four counts of first-degree murder. The trial for co-defendant Briaell Michael Lee, 28, is slated to take place later this year. Evidence presented at trial revealed that Bell lured victims Mario Larios, 23, Edgar Valles, 22, and Fernando Pina, 25, to his home through an advertisement in an auto sale magazine. The ad, which listed a 2001 Chevy Monte Carlo, was for the purpose of baiting would-be buyers, whom Bell intended to kill and rob. On Jan. 30, 2004, the bodies of the three men were discovered inside a Merceded Benz that had been left in a La Mirada parking lot. Prosecutors said Bell fatally shot two of the victims and Lee allegedly shot one of the men on Jan. 27, 2004. Bell also was convicted for the Nov. 11, 2003 murder of his girlfriend, Ineka Edmondson, 22. The two had partnered in a stolen-check-cashing scheme and Bell believed she was stealing from him, prosecutors said. Edmondson died from three close-range gunshot wounds to the head.

********** Published: April 28, 2011 - Volume 10 - Issue 2