Archive By Author - Jim Holt
Prosecution closes case with photos
SAN FERNANDO - The prosecution wrapped up its case against accused child killer Antonio Rodriguez on Friday by letting some of the more than 100 injury pictures tell the stories of brutality in the savage beating death of 5-year-old Desarie Elizabeth Saravia.
Businesses balk at fees
A planned sewer-system hookup fee - part of a package of sewer-fee rate hikes proposed Santa Clarita Valley-wide - is necessary to avoid future bond measures, a sanitation district official said this week.
They called him ‘Daddy’
SAN FERNANDO - Lawyers representing a man accused of beating to death his girlfriend's 5-year-old daughter wrapped up their case Wednesday with further testimony that he was a caring man whom the little girl called "Daddy."
Locals hope to flush out truth about potential sewer-rate hike
Sanitation District officials who held the first of a series of public information meetings on a proposed sewer-rate hike met with criticism and confusion from about 50 people who attended.
Family testifies accused was father figure
SAN FERNANDO - Antonio Rodriguez, who is accused of beating to death his girlfriend's daughter, was a caring father figure who took the child and her brother to his mother's house every day to feed them, according to testimony offered in court Tuesday.
Murdered girl’s blood found in motel room
SAN FERNANDO - Prosecutors wrapped up their case against accused murderer Antonio Rodriguez on Monday with crime analysts saying they found blood belonging to the murdered girl, Desarie Elizabeth Saravia, and her brother inside a blood-splattered Van Nuys motel room.
The sewage-rate hike’s salty effect on business
Hiking Santa Clarita Valley business owners' fees to pay for a salt-ridding machine is not the way to encourage new business to locate here, some owners say.
Experts describe wounding of lifeless little girl
SAN FERNANDO - A veteran emergency room physician said Friday he had never seen a patient injured as badly as tiny 5-year-old Desarie Elizabeth Saravia when she arrived lifeless at Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital one afternoon in 2004.
Tragic details unfold through pictures
SAN FERNANDO - A crayon drawing done by a badly beaten boy three days after his 5-year-old sister was savagely beaten to death in a Castaic park bathroom gave jurors a glimpse into the children's shared suffering Thursday as a murder trial continued. On Nov. 15, 2004, Brian Saravia, then 6, remained silent when a doctor specializing in cases of child abuse asked him a few questions at the University of California Los Angeles ...
Meadows works out with the best of ’em
Having exercised with students almost every other day for a month, teachers at Meadows Elementary School will have little problem jumping for joy today when they learn their school is a finalist in a statewide challenge to keep kids fit.
Reliving Desarie’s final moments
SAN FERNANDO - Two Castaic women described in court Wednesday what happened the day a lifeless, naked young girl ended up on their quiet suburban street.
High cost of salt wars
The victor of a water war over chloride levels in the Santa Clara River, pitting upstream suburbanites against downstream farmers, could be determined with the flourish of a pen on two emerging fronts this summer, The Signal has learned following a month-long investigation.
Downstreamers’ plight
VENTURA COUNTY - As he makes his way through a furrow that cuts one strawberry mound from the next, his steps are slow and sure, one dusty boot in front of the other.
SCV pays to pass the salt
Snow melting atop mountains in Plumas County, some 480 miles from the Santa Clarita Valley, is as clean as state legislators demand in their Porter-Cologne Act of 1969, and it's as clean as the Feds demand in their Clean Water Act of 1972.
Of woolly mammoths and farming
As the glaciers melted about 10,000 years ago, torrents of freshly melted ice and snow were sent rushing down the Santa Clarita Valley.
Articles By Author - Jim Holt
Pit bull attacks second dog in Sand Canyon
A roaming pit bull that ripped the leg off of a smaller dog in Canyon Country is expected to be humanely killed, a county official said Thursday.
UPDATE: Names of victim, suspect released in Acton homicide
Investigators probing a homicide in Acton have released the identities of the man who was shot and killed and the name of his alleged killer.
Boydston challenges chloride data
Santa Clarita City Councilman TimBen Boydston called the whole issue of chloride cleanup a scam Wednesday night after local sanitation officials presented their plan for reducing how much of the salty compound the sanitation district discharges into the Santa Clara River.
Newhall woman faces murder charges in Arizona
A Newhall woman charged with two counts of second-degree murder in connection with a fatal 2011 crash near the Arizona state line that claimed the lives of two children goes on trial in Arizona this week, The Signal has learned.
Tour of California racers blast out of SCV
After a night's rest in the Santa Clarita Valley, cyclists competing in the annual Amgen Tour of California left town en mass Wednesday to completed the first half of the eight-day race in Santa Barbara.
Magnitude-4 quake recorded near Rancho Palos Verdes
Federal earthquake monitors reported an earthquake six miles south of Rancho Palos Verdes today at 1 p.m.
Officials share plans to reduce chloride
Local sanitation officials held their first of six public hearings in Castaic Tuesday night in an effort to gauge which plan they should pursue in reducing the amount of chloride discharged into the Santa Clara River.
UPDATE: Tour of California races through SCV
Hundreds of cycling fans crowded along Magic Mountain Parkway Tuesday to watch some of the world's fastest cyclists cross the finish line for Day 3 of the Amgen Tour of California.
Woman pleads innocent in collision with bicyclist
A Valencia woman charged with felony hit and run for a vehicle collision with a bicyclist last March has pleaded not guilty this week, court papers show.
Canyon Country man gets 64 years to life in shooting of neighbor
A Canyon Country man who shot and killed his neighbor following a vicious seven-year feud has been sentenced to 64 years to life in prison.
UPDATE: Blaze in Valencia held to 1 1/2 acres
A Santa Clarita Valley brush fire that was initially reported as two separate blazes was doused by Los Angeles County firefighters in the Valencia Industrial Center today.
Saugus: HOA structures vandalized with anti-Semitic symbols
Vandals defaced HOA complex structures with racist slogans and anti-Semitic symbols during the weekend in Saugus, prompting a probe by local sheriff's detectives, a manager for the property said Monday.
Smoke from controlled burn alarms Castaic residents
Smoke from a controlled burn near Hasley Canyon alarmed some Castaic residents this morning, a Fire Department spokesman said.
Family, friends gather to honor crash victim
Blast to the past at Placerita Canyon nature Center's Open House
