A Broward man was arrested after authorities say he repeatedly stabbed his friend over a $5 wager.

Anthony Lemar Mells, 51, was arrested on a premeditated attempted murder charge Sunday.

He was ordered held without bond Monday during a court appearance before Broward Judge John Hurley.

According to the arrest report read by Hurley, Mells and the victim, who have known each other for several years, got into an argument over a $5 wager. Mells stabbed the victim several times, Hurley said.

Mells' attorney said he used the knife in self defense. The victim's identity and condition were unknown.

Boston has set a record for the most snow recorded in a 30-day period, and more is on the way.

The National Weather Service said Boston had received 68.6 inches in the last 30 days by Monday, breaking the record of 58.8 inches in one 30-day period ending in February 1978.

Logan International Airport had a little more than a foot by 7 a.m. from a storm that was expected to last all day and add several more inches.

There's been more than 29 inches in Weymouth and 24 inches in Norwell as of Monday afternoon.

Bangor, Maine, has also tied the all-time highest snow depth record as of 7 a.m. Monday. The snow depth at Bangor International Airport was 53 inches, tying the record highest snow depth set back in the winter of 1969.

Jesse Matthew, the man accused of abducting University of Virginia student Hannah Graham last year, has been charged with her murder, authorities announced Tuesday.

Matthew, 33, was indicted last week on first-degree murder. Matthew is also facing a charge of abduction with intent to defile and two counts of reckless driving for incidents that occurred during the investigation of Graham's disappearance.

He was not charged with capital murder, which means he would not face the death penalty if convicted. The abduction and first-degree murder charges are each punishable by up to life in prison.

Matthew faces a possibility of five life sentences if convicted in both Fairfax and Albemarle counties.

Graham vanished after a night out with friends Sept. 12. According to police, the 18-year-old left an off-campus party alone and texted a friend saying she was lost.

In surveillance video, she can be seen walking unsteadily and even running at times, past a pub and a service station and then onto a seven-block strip of bars, restaurants and shops. Another video captured her leaving a restaurant with Matthew, who had an arm around her.

Graham disappearance prompted a month-long search that ended when her remains were found just miles from where she was last seen in Charlottesville.

DNA evidence also linked Matthew to the 2009 disappearance and death of Virginia Tech student Morgan Harrington. Her remains were found three months after she disappeared the night she attended a rock concert at U.Va.

The families of Graham and Harrington were notified of the new charges against Matthew, Lunsford said.

Matthew has also been linked to a 2005 attack on a woman in Fairfax. He pleaded not guilty to all three charges he is facing in connection with the 2005 case, in which a 26-year-old woman was walking home from a grocery store when she was grabbed and dragged into a wooded area, where she was sexually assaulted.

Matthew will appear in an Albemarle County courtroom by video link on Feb. 18 for his first hearing on the new charge.

A woman hit multiple vehicles and flipped her car in Garden Grove early Tuesday.

The parked cars were badly damaged in the crash, which occurred on Haster Street at around 12:45 a.m, Garden Grove Police Department said.

The driver was booked on suspicion of driving under the influence.

A transgender woman has been charged in connection with the death of another transgender woman following a botched off-the-books silicone injection.

Liborio De La Luz Ramos, 44, faces charges for what authorities describe as the accidental death of  Katya Delariva, 40. Ramos is accused of injecting silicone in Delariva's buttocks.

Prosecutors say the procedure was done not at a hospital or a doctor's office but inside Ramos' home.

Prosecutors say they want to know how long Ramos has been injecting people with silicone and without a medical license.

This message was seen on Ramos' Facebook page after her arrest Friday:

"You hurt no one feels it, your happiness no one notices. Your sadness no one sees it. But behave badly, commit an error... And everybody criticizes you."

Ramos led a group through the streets of Santa Ana last May demanding separate housing for transgender individuals in custody.

Silicone injections are often used during the transition process to help people feel comfortable in their bodies, Tony Viramontes, who works with transgender men and women at the LGBT Center OC, told NBC4.

Dr. Antonio Cabayo said few surgeons use silicone anymore because of its complications. However, it is accepted in other countries.

"So they come here and say, 'let's have these injection parties' and they're not always using medical grade for the cosmetic procedures," said Cabayo. "Sometimes it's from Home Depot because, in their ignorance, they think silicone is silicone."

Prosecutors said that is one avenue they are pursuing--whether Ramos used silicone from a hardware store like this or whether she had access to another kind. They want to hear from anyone who got an injection.

The woman pushing a grocery cart was one of the few out on the streets of downtown Brooklyn after midnight Tuesday as a team of volunteers spread out in search of homeless people trying to keep warm in the frigid air.

Wearing a single mitten in the 20 degree weather and a T-shirt under her jacket, she declined an offer of a van to a shelter. She was the daughter of Coco Chanel and been kidnapped, she told the team at one point.

The volunteers were among a cadre trying to count New York City's homeless population and so they logged her answers to their questionnaire and moved on — though because the early morning was so cold they were making sure no one they encountered was in danger. Last year's count drew 3,000 volunteers and the tally's organizers were hoping for a similar number of volunteers on Monday.

Now in the 10th year, the nationwide estimates of people in shelters and on the streets are required by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and they remain contested, particularly over whether they are accurate.

Patrick Markee, the deputy executive director for advocacy at the Coalition for the Homeless in New York, said the survey’s flawed methodology resulted in an undercount of people who are on the streets.

“The idea of doing a single night count or guesstimate of all of homeless people on the streets of New York City, which has the largest homeless population in the country, is just by its very nature kind of absurd,” Markee said.

A better approach would be to talk to staff at soup kitchens, shelters and other front-line organizations and estimate their use over a month, he said.

The number of homeless people staying in New York City’s shelters is at 58,500 this month. How many are sleeping on streets and in city's parks is more difficult to determine. Last year's estimate was 3,357, down from 4,395 in 2005.

Steve Berg, the vice president for programs and policy at the National Alliance to End Homelessness in Washington D.C., agreed that the count gives only an approximation of the size of the problem. But it is nonetheless valuable, he said.

"It is not the easiest thing in the world to do to figure out exactly how many people there are sleeping outside on a given night and so nobody thinks that they’re finding every single homeless person in the whole country," he said. "But I think places do the best they can."

Los Angeles is second only to New York with the most homeless residents, but there the difficulties are different. Volunteers must try to find people across the county's 4,000 miles over three days and officials have disagreed on the best method.

Los Angeles had nearly 40,000 homeless residents in 2013. It initially counted more but a telephone survey used to find what officials called the hidden homeless was challenged by federal authorities seeking consistency across the country.

This year's count -- communities must tally the number in shelters every year and those on the streets at least every other year -- focused on veterans. Secretary of Veterans Affairs Robert McDonald was in Los Angeles late last month for the tally as part of a national push to find housing for men and women who served in the armed forces.

Chicago has been focused on its young people and the during this year's homeless count, the city sent out a special team of formerly homeless youth to interview their peers on the street.

"Who better to locate and identify with youth, homeless youth, than people who are or have been homeless," said Matt Smith, a spokesman for the city's Department of Family and Support Services. "They've been there, there's much less of a barrier that goes up and we find that they're very helpful."

Last year, the city identified 6,294 homeless people, little changed from the year before. Of those, 5,329 were in shelters and 965 were living on the streets.

Across the country, the number of homeless people has been dropping, from 760,000 in 2005, the year of the first count, to 643,000 in 2009. During the recession, the numbers leveled off, then fell again to 578,000 in 2014.

But national numbers can mask increases in individual communties. Washington D.C.'s count last year found nearly 12,000 homeless people, a 3.5 percent increase.

Berg said the overall decrease was a way to show that money spent on helping people find housing and jobs was well spent.

"I think everybody understands that homelessness is bad, that any amount of homelessness is bad," he said. "The problem is people don’t think you can do anything about it."

The federal Department of Housing and Urban Development allocated $2.135 billion for its largest homeless programs for the 2015 fiscal year and has proposed $2.48 billion for the next fiscal year.

Ann Oliva, HUD’s deputy assistant secretary for special needs, said that the annual counts are a tool for measuring the need in communities.

"This annual exercise gives us valuable data on year-to-year trends and has shown the significant progress we have made over the past five years toward ending homelessness," she said.

Out on the streets in downtown Brooklyn, the team met one man who would rather ride the subways than stay at a shelter and another, with a cane, who claimed to be fine. And on a subway platform, they encountered their first pair of decoys, volunteers waiting to be found as a way to ensure the accuracy of the count.

"It's not a perfect science," said Eric Adams, the Brooklyn borough president, before the teams set out. "Homelessness is not a perfect condition. The face of homelessness changes all the time. You don't know if a person is spending one night on the couch of his friend, another night on the couch of someone else."
 

A remote controlled drone almost collided with a commercial jet at 4,000 feet Sunday as it approached Los Angeles International Airport.

An investigation has been launched after the case, which occurred as a Southwest Airlines plane prepared to land at the airport. Audio recordings of the pilot and control tower documented the moment the pilot told  air control about the near-miss.

"Hey, there was just one of those radio-controlled helicopter things that went right over the top of us at 4,000," the pilot said. "One of those remotely piloted deals… (a) little bitty one, red in color."

It is just the latest in a number of incidents across the country in which drones were spotted flying far too close to airports. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) administrator Michael Huerta warned flying drones near airports could lead to a tragedy.

"The thing that we have to avoid is any opportunity for aircraft to come into contact with one another because that is an extremely dangerous situation for everyone involved," Huerta said.

A day before the LAX sighting, a drone was spotted at 3,500 feet in Chicago. A few hours later, a private pilot reported a drone at 1,300 feet.

On Sunday in Atlanta, another drone was spotted at 8,000 feet, well above the FAA limit of 400 feet.

Drone pilots in Los Angeles say flying near places like runways is unacceptable behavior for responsible flyers

Taylor Chien, founder and CEO of Dronefly, is hoping software that uses drones' own GPS systems will be used to keep rogue pilots away from restricted areas.

"So say you fly near an airport like LAX and you are within a five-mile radius it will... stop, turn around and fly back to you," Chien said. 

Congress has given the FAA until the end of the year to come up with rules on how drones will be flown in the United States.

A mother has said she has forgiven the gang members who fatally shot her son's father in front of him.

The woman, who did not want to be identified, spoke after the Los Angeles Police Department seized the group's arsenal, though the murder weapon was not found.

Juan Chavez, 39, was gunned down as he stood with his 15-year-old son in an apartment courtyard in Pacoima last August. Police said they were innocent bystanders caught up in a dispute between rival gangs.

"He witnessed everything. He witnessed his dad get shot, he's the one who called 911," the woman, who only wanted to be identified as Jackie, said. "Nothing will bring him back but because of my love for God, my son and I forgive them."

Jackie also said the incident was still affecting her son.

"He understands everything that's happening but his mind still hasn't processed everything he's in therapy right now," Jackie said.

After Chavez was killed detectives began searching for the gang responsible, and later found the getaway car. The discovery provided information that led to search warrants being  served on three homes in Arleta. They found 16 weapons, including assault rifles, handguns and body armor.

Police arrested three gang members, including a minor detectives believe was the shooter, however they are still looking for the 9 mm gun used to kill Chavez.

"He's admitted to it. He's admitted to the gun and where he got it and what he did with it," Officer Gabriel Bucknell said.

However, the detective conceded that while the weapons seizure would be a blow to the gang, it would not stop its activity.

"It will impact what they do for a little bit but they'll right back to it I'm sure before long," Officer Bucknell said.

Police said there are up to 30 gangs in the Pacoima area and the guns were seized from one of the smaller gangs.

Michael Larkin contributed to this report

You could feel the eyes tracing your every step through Recology’s recycling yard at the southern edge of San Francisco. Thousands of them. From every rooftop and scrap heap.

In the doorways - feasting on garbage. Indigo Redondo seemed oblivious to the watchful glances as he opened the camper shell of his small pickup and began laying out his day’s implements.

“They know something’s coming,” he said, calmly slipping on a thick leather glove and coaxing his three-year old Harris hawk named Nina onto it.

Two months ago, Redondo reprised his job at Recology - attempting to chase thousands of seagulls around the facility in a Sisyphean attempt to keep them from dining on garbage and dropping it in the nearby bay. Redondo was aided in his endeavor by the hawk, a dog, a long pole he waves about and a shepherd’s whistle.

“They don’t give up very easily,” Redondo said. “You can move them around and they return.”

Redondo and the hawk padded over to a building with a robust flock of seagulls roosting warily on the roof. A handful took wing at the mere site of the pair, while others chose to stubbornly stick it out. Redondo released the hawk which flew to the edge of the metal roof and took a seat. The mere sight incited a blizzard of wings as the seagulls hastily peeled off.

“Seagulls are hard wired to know what a predator is,” Redondo said extending the glove to recall the hawk. He briefly admired the bird-free roof before pointing out another nearby rooftop where the birds had regrouped.

“All day long it’s just never ending,” he said.

It should be pointed-out Redondo and his crew aren’t out to hurt the seagulls, just harass them. His hawk is trained to simply hang out, which in the pecking order of the bird world, seems more than adequate to move other birds along.

“Actually I like the seagulls, Redondo offered. “But they belong in their place.”

On occasion Redondo will stroll about the yard dodging garbage trucks with his dog who was elated to chase off seagulls - and probably doesn’t even realize it was doing a job.

On occasion, Redondo will wave a 12-foot pole with a cloth tied to end, blowing on a shrill whistle to move the critters along. After a while of waving, he noticed the birds had now returned to the original spot where they hawk had made its menacing impression.

“The seagulls are very smart.” Redondo said. “People often make the remark of ‘oh they’ve got bird brains, they’re small brains, they can’t figure anything out.’ But actually they’re very smart.”
Redondo is always adding new tricks to his abatement arsenal.

He recently purchased an ultrasonic sound bird repellent machine which he plans to install on one of the facility’s roofs. And on occasion he’ll whip out a laser pointer which seemed to have the same effect as releasing a mean looking hawk.

“I think the answer really is to keep the birds moving,” Recology spokesman Robert Reed said, “so they kind of don’t want to live here.”

Eventually, Redondo and his animals took a lunch break, and it appeared the seagulls did too - flocking back to the piles of foods scraps to enjoy a bountiful feast. Redondo eyed his flocks of foes and enjoyed the brief respite from his shooing responsibilities.

“It’s a satisfying job,” Redondo said. “But at the same time it can be frustrating.”

Airlines reported the lowest number of tarmac delays longer than three hours on record in 2014, U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx announced Tuesday.

According to the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Air Travel Consumer Report, there were 30 domestic flights with tarmac delays of three hours or longer and nine international flights with delays of four hours or longer at U.S. airports in 2014. Delays in both categories dropped by more than 60 percent year over year.

Foxx credited relatively recent changes limiting the amount of time airlines can keep passengers on the tarmac, saying the "rules are meant to protect passengers and it appears that the airlines have gotten the message."

“We have aggressively enforced, and will continue to aggressively enforce, our tarmac delay rules to ensure that carriers have adequate resources, such as staff and equipment, to minimize passengers’ exposure to lengthy tarmac delays, and that passengers are treated with respect before, during, and after their flights,” Foxx added.

In 2013, U.S. airports saw 84 domestic flights with tarmac delays longer than three hours and 55 international flights with delays longer than four hours. During 2009, the last full year before the Department’s domestic tarmac rule went into effect, airlines reported 868 domestic flights with tarmac delays longer than three hours.

The department’s rule that prohibits U.S. carriers operating domestic flights from sitting on tarmacs for longer than three hours without giving passengers the option to deplane went into effect in April 2010.

Another rule that prohibits U.S. and foreign carriers to operate international flights to or from the U.S. from allowing tarmac delays longer than four hours at U.S. airports without a deplane option began in August 2011.

Exceptions to the time limits for both domestic and international flights are allowed only for safety, security or air traffic control-related situations. Tuesday's figures do not include other types of delays or cancellations, such as those that occur before passengers get on the plane.

Crossing guards will be posted at busy intersections near a school in Upland starting Tuesday morning following a tragic hit-and-run.

The move comes after an emotional plea from the mother of 11-year-old Isaiah Shelton-Dobine, who was fatally struck by a car while he was walking to Cabrillo Elementary School back in October. That same month, parents and residents marched to petition for safer streets for students.

Shelton-Dobine was hit by a Jeep Cherokee driver who left the scene. The driver, identified by Upland police as 25-year-old Jason Fehr, was arrested in connection with the hit-and-run.

Upland City Council unanimously approved the measure to station two paid guards at the busiest crossings, while an emergency measure to use volunteers guards at other locations for the time being also passed. 

"I gave these children and these parents and the community, I gave them my word that I would be here," volunteer crossing guard Ismael Nieves said. "That I would stick here until the crossing guards come."

There had been no crossing guards near the school for almost five years due to finance issues.

"You have those people who think that, 'Oh you just took five seconds of my day because I was trying to turn this corner and I have to wait an extra light,'" Nieves said. "Really, what is five seconds compared to a possible life?"

A man was shot dead in Boyle Heights early Tuesday.

The shooting at Chicago and Sheridan streets was reported at 5:36 a.m, the Los Angeles Police Department said. The victim was in his 20s.

Homicide units are on the scene. There is no information on a possible suspect, and the incident is possibly gang related.

The owner of an Orange County auto shop is hoping police can help track down a slew of vehicles that were stolen within three days, officials said Tuesday.

The thieves stole 10 vehicles from Tunex Auto Services in the 10400 block of Magnolia Avenue in Stanton between Saturday evening and Monday morning, according to the Orange County Sheriff's Department.

Deputies believe the culprits cut the lock on an exterior security gate before they stole a mix of sedans, SUVs and trucks of models ranging from 2006 to 2014.

One shop employee saw two men, one of whom wore a black cap, white tank top and brown shorts, sitting in one of the stolen cars, a red 2013 Hyundai Genesis, deputies said.

The two men were parked in an alleyway several blocks from the business, officials said.

The license plate number #6WZT113 was covered by a paper plate that read "OC Auto Exchange" in black and gold lettering, officials said.

By the time deputies arrived, the car was gone.

Lt. Jeff Hallock said deputies found three of the cars a short distance from the auto shop on Monday, and seven are still missing.

Anyone with information is encouraged to call the Orange County Sheriff's Department at 714-647-7000. Anonymous tips may also be submitted to Orange County Crime Stoppers at 855-TIP-OCCS (855-847-6227) or at occrimestoppers.org.

If your car is stolen while at an auto repair shop, call the California Department of Insurance hotline at 800-927-4357.

Officials from the Little League International will meet Tuesday to discuss an investigation into Chicago’s championship Little League Team Jackie Robinson West after allegations the team violated rules by adding top suburban players.

League spokesman Brian McClintock said the organization “is in the final stages of reviewing all information relating to the concerns raised” and said the Charter Committee will meet to discuss resolution.

McClintock said a final decision is expected soon.

The league began investigating JRW lsat year after the team was accused of adding top suburban players to make it stronger, a violation of “residency regulations.”

In December, McClintock said an “initial determination” showed the players met eligibility requirements. The organization said the matter was considered closed, but could be reopened if new evidence came forward.

The team made national and international headlines when it made it to the Little League World Series, capturing the attention of major league players, who contributed money so the families of the team from the city's South Side could attend the tournament in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. After winning the national championship game — becoming the city's first all-black team to claim the national title — and then falling to South Korea in the world championship game, Jackie Robinson West was feted with a parade and a visit to the major league World Series and the White House, where they met President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama.

License plate scanners in California may be capturing much more than just license plates.

One California man backed by the ACLU submitted a public records request to obtain the images from the mounted license plate reader camera used by the San Leandro Police Department. He knew about the scanners but didn’t know the extent of the photographs.

“I didn't realize that in addition to capturing my license plate of my car, they were also capturing an image of the surroundings of the car," Mike Katz-Lacabe said in a Skype interview. 

Katz-Lacabe was shocked when he got the photos from the northern California police department. He said the photos showed more than he had imagined.

“Enough for them to distinguish me and my daughters getting out of my car,” Katz-Lacabe said. “But there's also another image of where I'm next to the car and it's very obviously me.”

The ACLU, an organization which has raised questions about the license plate scanners, featured Katz-Lacabe’s story, calling the photos, “worrisome.”

On a blog post on their website, the ACLU said the Drug Enforcement Administration has been using the license plate reader programs to photograph the drivers and their passengers, according to newly obtained records by the ACLU through a Freedom of Information Act request.

One document obtained by the ACLU from 2009 said the program could provide “the requester” with images that might include the license plate number as well as photos of visible vehicle occupants.

Katz-Lacabe’s story begs the question, is this happening in San Diego?

Coronado Police Commander Jesus Ochoa says the four cameras on top of their patrol cars are angled down, in the direction of vehicle license plates.

But, he said, that doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen, either.

"Are there other concerns that you get your pictures taken getting in and out of the car, yeah,” Ochoa said. “I'm sure that happens but there's really, if you consider how many pictures a unit like this takes, versus what we're looking for, we don't have enough time to identify where everybody is at any one point."

Commander Ochoa said the scanners are meant to take pictures of license plates and they often find stolen cars.

The San Diego Sheriff's Department uses license plate readers, though spokeswoman Jan Caldwell said the license plate readers are not designed to photograph people.

"The camera has to be angled downward in order to capture license plates," Caldwell said in a statement to NBC 7. "Now, that's not to say that it happens occasionally, but it is not the intention. The cameras are designed to capture the reflective properties of the plates, which is a reason we also obtain so many photographs of street signs – because of their reflective nature."

A grand jury has indicted an NYPD officer in the November shooting of an unarmed Brooklyn man in a darkened public housing building's stairwell, a law enforcement source and a lawyer for the victim's family told NBC 4 New York.

The Brooklyn District Attorney would not comment on grand jury proceedings, but the law enforcement source and a family attorney said Officer Peter Liang has been indicted in the fatal shooting of 28-year-old Akai Gurley and will surrender tomorrow. The charge is not known. 

“This is the first step in a fight for justice in this wrongful and reckless shooting of an innocent man,” Gurley family attorney Scott Rynecki said.  The family will address the media outside of court tomorrow, he said.  

The head of the NYPD officer's union said Liang deserves the same due process afforded to anyone involved in an accidental death.    

"The fact the he was assigned to patrol one most dangerous housing projects in New York City must be considered among the circumstances of this tragic accident,” Patrolmen's Benevolent Association President Pat Lynch said in a statement. 

Mayor Bill de Blasio urged "everyone to respect the judicial process as it unfolds”

Police say Gurley was accidentally killed after opening a door in a pitch-dark stairway that Liang, a rookie officer, was patrolling in the Pink Houses in East New York.

Police Commissioner Bill Bratton said that the shooting was an accident and called Gurley a "total innocent." Liang was placed on desk duty after the shooting. The shooting, amid the choking death of Eric Garner, sparked protests around the city.

Police say Liang and his partner, who both had less than 18 months on the force, were conducting a floor-by-floor sweep of the building and had gone to the roof when they noticed there were no lights in the stairwell leading up to it.

Given the location and lack of light, Liang drew his weapon and a flashlight for safety reasons, police have said. The other officer kept his service weapon holstered.

As the officers were entering the eighth-floor landing, Gurley emerged on the seventh-floor landing. He heard a noise and turned to look up at the two officers a floor above him, a law enforcement source said.

Then Liang fired, hitting Gurley 11 feet below him, according to police.Gurley was shot in the chest. He stumbled down to his girlfriend, who was by that point on the fifth floor, and she tried to administer first aid, authorities said. Liang and his partner found the couple on the fifth floor; 911 had already been called. Gurley was pronounced dead at a hospital.

Summerlike temperatures will arrive Wednesday during a February warm-up that will include strong Santa Ana wind gusts in Southern California.

Temperatures will climb to well above normal Wednesday, when highs in the mid-80s are forecast for much of the region. Similar temperatures are expected into the weekend.

Temperatures Friday and Saturday will be about 20 degrees above normal. Average temperatures for this time of year are generally around 67 in downtown Los Angeles, 68 in the San Fernando Valley and Riverside, 69 in Pasadena and 64 in Santa Monica.

"We're going to head into the mid-, even upper 80s," said NBC4 forecaster Anthony Yanez. "There are possible records going down as we move toward the end of the workweek."

The record high temperature for Feb. 11 in downtown Los Angeles is 88 degrees, set in 1971. The temperature climbed to a record 91 a day later that same year.

The heat will be accompanied by gusty Santa Ana winds, the strongest of which will arrive Wednesday and Thursday, and high surf. A west-northwest swell generated last week in the western Pacific will arrive late Wednesday and continue through Friday.

As of Tuesday afternoon, fire weather warnings were not scheduled to go into effect during the heat wave. A high wind warning is in effect Tuesday for parts of Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties.

A 10-degree drop in temperatures is expected Sunday and another decline is in Monday's forecast.

The heat wave comes as the state enters a fourth year of drought that has left California's water reservoirs at critically low levels. State climatologists estimate the state would need at least 150 percent of normal precipitation by the end of the water year, which is Sept. 30, if California has any chance of significant drought improvement.
 

Prosecutors cast new light on a case that went dark for years Tuesday morning when they laid out their claims against a man accused of murdering a Cal State Fullerton student more than 20 years ago.

In their opening statements, they described a sort of Romeo and Juliet romance between Sam Lopez and his then on-again, off-again 20-year-old girlfriend Cathy Torrez.

"What detectives learned after talking to family and friends, not only was there relationhship serious but on the Sunday after date night there's evidence that Sam Lopez asked Cathy to elope with him," Senior District Attorney Matt Murphy said. "He wanted to marry her and he wanted to run away."

On Feb. 12, 1994 Torrez left her work from a Sav-On Drug Store in Placentia never to be seen alive again. Her body was found a week later in the trunk of her red Toyota Corolla with multiple stab wounds to the neck and chest.

At the time of Torrez's death, Lopez admitted he was jealous of any man whose name she mentioned. Lopez and his cousin Xavier Lopez became the prime suspects in the case.
The cousins had an alibi for each other on the night of the murder, complicating the investigation for years.

Jurors were told Sam Lopez was cooperative in the beginning, but always had an alibi.

Initially, there was no DNA evidence found inside of Torrez's car but as technology evolved over the years officials were allegedly able to tie the suspects to the case.

Forensic testing in 1997 and 2007 linked the cousins to the crime, according to officials.

In 2007, Sam and Xavier, both 35,  were arrested and charged with murder.

Sam's brother, Armando Lopez was also arrested and charged with being an accessory to murder.