The Los Angeles County library system is in financial trouble and cannot sustain its level of services over the next decade, according to a report delivered Tuesday to the Board of Supervisors.

But the Library Commission’s chief recommendation –- asking voters served by the county library system to increase an existing special tax –- appeared to leave the supervisors unenthusiastic. Supervisors received the report but did not discuss the recommendation.

The report illustrates a darkening financial outlook for nation’s largest public library system, which serves 3.7 million people, including 51 of the 88 cities in L.A. County and most unincorporated communities. Without increasing the special tax, the library system could be forced to make deep cuts in service hours and other programs, such as children’s services, homework help and gang prevention programs.

 “The Library Commission strongly opposes that model because it would have a significant impact on service delivery,” the report said.

The county library system has an annual budget of $109.7 million but faces an annual structural deficit for the next decade of $22 million a year.

Gusty winds up to 50 mph are expected through Friday morning along Interstate 5 in the Grapevine area and across other parts of Los Angeles and Ventura counties, forecasters said.

The National Weather Service issued a wind advisory for the area through 9 a.m. Friday.

The northwest to north winds are expected to reach 20 mph to 30 mph with gusts of 50 mph, the weather service said.

The agency advised motorists, especially those with high-profile vehicles, to drive with caution.

--Robert J. Lopez

An Orange County jury Tuesday ordered the death penalty for a gang member convicted in a murder-for -hire conspiracy, authorities said.

Alberto Martinez, 32, of Castaic was convicted last month of one felony count each of special circumstances murder, conspiracy to commit murder, possession of a firearm by a felon, kidnapping to commit robbery and street terrorism, the Orange County district attorney's office said.

Prosecutors said Martinez and several other members of a San Fernando Valley street gang were hired in 2002 to kill Buena Park business owner David Montemayor, 44.

Martinez and the others were charged with kidnapping Montemayor, who was gunned down after he escaped from a car where he was being held.

Montemayor's sister, Deborah Perna, 53, of Anaheim was later charged with hiring the gang members to murder her brother. Perna believed her brother was stealing from the family business, where she worked as the office manager, and wanted to get rid of him, according to prosecutors.

She was convicted in October 2005 of murder with the special circumstances of committing the murder in the course of attempted robbery and kidnapping and was sentenced to life in state prison without the possibility of parole, prosecutors said. Another defendant in the case has received the death penalty and a third is awaiting a death-penalty trial.

Martinez is scheduled for sentencing Aug. 6 at the Santa Ana courthouse.

-- Robert J. Lopez

One of two inmates who escaped last week from Castaic jail was found guilty Tuesday of multiple counts of armed robbery, authorities said. 

Winder Estuardo Barrios, 24, was found guilty of all 15 counts he faced, including home-invasion robbery, false imprisonment by violence, assault with a firearm and 10 counts of second-degree robbery, the Los Angeles County district attorney's office said.

Barrios is scheduled for sentencing June 25 in Los Angeles County Superior Court. He faces up to 50 years in state prison, prosecutors said.

Barrios was one of two men charged with a March 27 home-invasion robbery in Encino. Prosecutors alleged that he tied up a housekeeper and the homeowner’s daughter at gunpoint before stealing TVs from the home. He also was convicted of committing several armed robberies the day before in the Hollywood area.

Prosecutors said Tuesday that a second jury was deliberating in the case of co-defendant Jose Antonio Aldana, 24, who escaped with Barrios from the North County Correctional Facility on April 28.

Barrios and Aldana were captured by Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies later that day about a half-mile from the jail.

-- Robert J. Lopez

Photo: Winder Estuardo Barrios. Credit: Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department

Funeral services are scheduled Tuesday for a 27-year-old Los Angeles County sheriff's deputy who died after a motorcycle accident in Santa Clarita, officials said.

Cameron Glover was off-duty and riding his motorcycle north on McBean Parkway about 8:30 p.m. on April 28 when he collided with another motorist headed in the same direction, the sheriff's department said. He was taken to Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital where he died of his injuries. The other motorist was not hurt.

Glover had been with the department for four years and his wife is seven months pregnant, sheriff's department spokesman Steve Whitmore said.

Services will begin at 2 p.m. at the Santa Clarita Performing Arts Center at College of the Canyons.

In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to a fund in Glover's name at the Bank of Santa Clarita. For more information, call the Santa Clarita Valley station at (661) 255-1121.

-- Corina Knoll

Authorities have captured two armed-robbery suspects who escaped early Wednesday from the Castaic jail where they were being held during trial.

Sheriff’s Department spokesman Steve Whitmore said Winder Barrios and Jose Aldana were taken into custody without incident in Castaic shortly after 5 p.m. The men had apparently been trying to get people to give them clothes, he said.

Residents aware of the escape alerted deputies, who went to Hasley Canyon Road and arrested the escapees, Whitmore said. The men were found to be missing during a 3:15 a.m. head count at the North County Correctional Facility, just hours before they were due in court.

The men had been working at a kitchen loading dock and may have escaped shortly after 1 a.m., Whitmore said. Sheriff’s deputies believe the men, both 24 and from Van Nuys, may have planned their escape because they were facing severe jail time.

[Updated 9:55 p.m.: A spokesman for Supervisor Mike Antonovich said Wednesday night that the two escapees were illegal immigrants. The spokesman, Tony Bell, said the supervisor would be calling for an investigation into the circumstances of the escape, including what role the federal government may have played in checking the men's immigration status.]

The pair disappeared the day after three witnesses identified them in court as culprits in a string of robberies, said Jane Robison, spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office. An accomplice pleaded guilty in the case.

“We think we have a strong case,” Robison said. On March 27, the men allegedly broke into an Encino home, tied up the housekeeper at gunpoint and began helping themselves to computers and television sets.

-- Richard Winton

Authorities are looking for two armed-robbery suspects who escaped early Wednesday from the Castaic jail where they were being held during trial.

The men were discovered missing during a 3:15 a.m. head count at the North County Correctional Facility, just hours before they were due in court, said Steve Whitmore, spokesman for the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.

The men had been working at a kitchen loading dock and may have escaped shortly after 1 a.m., Whitmore said.

[Updated at 12:29 p.m.: Sheriff’s deputies weren’t certain how the men – both maximum-security inmates -- escaped and were investigating whether any trucks at the loading docks might have been involved, Whitmore said.

“The question is, why are they on this detail together?” he said. “That is what our investigators are examining.”]

Sheriff’s deputies believe the men, identified as Winder Barrios and Jose Aldana, both 24 and from Van Nuys, may have planned their escape because they were facing significant prison time.

The men disappeared the day after three witnesses identified them in court as suspects in a string of robberies, said Jane Robison, spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office. A suspected accomplice pleaded guilty in the case.

 

Authorities are looking for two inmates who escaped early Wednesday from a Castaic jail. 

The men, who were in custody in connection with an armed robbery, were discovered missing during a 3:15 a.m. head count at the North County Correctional Facility, said Steve Whitmore, spokesman for the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. 

The men had been working at a kitchen loading dock and may have escaped shortly after 1 a.m., Whitmore said.

“We have information that leads us to believe that they may have planned this escape because they were facing a court hearing [Wednesday] where they were facing severe jail time,” Whitmore said.

[Updated at 9:55 a.m.: The two were expected Wednesday in court, where the case was in mid-trial. They each faced more than 10 years in prison if convicted of multiple counts, said Jane Robison, a spokeswoman for the L.A. County district attorney’s office.]

He identified the men as Winder Barrios and Jose Aldana, both 24 and from Van Nuys. They were arrested April 2 by the Los Angeles Police Department’s Hollywood division.

About 50 sheriff’s deputies are participating in the search and more may be called in, Whitmore said.

-- Alexandra Zavis

Upper photos: Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies at an entrance to the North County Correctional Facility in Castaic. Credit: Al Seib / Los Angeles Times

Lower photos: Jose Aldana (top) and Winder Barrios. Credit: Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department

The shooting victim in an apparent robbery attempt at a Palmdale jewelry store this week has been identified, but his killer remains at large, authorities said Thursday.

Mario Tovar, 59, of Lancaster, was shot to death about 2:15 p.m. Wednesday at the Palmdale Jewelry Mart in the 2700 block of East Palmdale Boulevard, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. Tovar, who ran the store, was pronounced dead at the scene, coroner’s officials said.

Witnesses described the suspect as a black male in his early 20s wearing dark clothing and a baseball cap, authorities said. He was last seen fleeing the scene on foot through the parking lot of the jewelry store.

Sheriff’s deputies detained one individual a short distance from the store. He was held Wednesday evening pending questioning by homicide detectives, authorities said.

It was unclear whether this individual was involved in the shooting at the store, authorities said.

The public is invited to attend a 1 p.m. ceremony Sunday honoring four homeless Southern California veterans, whose remains were unclaimed at their deaths, putting them at risk of enduring burial in paupers’ graves.

Instead, the veterans, who were indigent and have no known family, will receive full military funeral honors at the Eternal Valley Memorial Park and Mortuary in Newhall.

The tribute is part of a national program known as the Dignity Memorial Homeless Veterans Burial Program, which is available in at least 25 cities across the country and has provided burial services to more than 675 homeless veterans since the program started in 2000, according to organizers.

The deceased servicemen to be honored Sunday are Raymond Frajardo, who served with the U.S. Navy from 1957 to 1963; John C. Newman, who was also with the U.S. Navy from 1942 to 1945; Larry Lavine, a member of the U.S. Army from 1957 to 1958; and Edward Goodrich, an Army veteran who served from 1962 to 1965.

Little else is known about the lives of the former servicemen.