A 27-year-old man accused of killing Los Angeles County sheriff’s Sgt. Steven Owen was to have been formally charged with capital murder Monday but, instead, saw his arraignment postponed for a month.
According to the criminal complaint filed last month by prosecutors, Trenton Trevon Lovell, is charged with one count each of attempted murder with an allegation that he used a patrol car as a deadly and dangerous weapon and possession of a firearm by a felon with priors, and two counts each of first-degree residential robbery and false imprisonment by violence with a knife use allegation.
He was scheduled to be arraigned – formally charged – for those offenses Monday.
Lovell is now scheduled to be arraigned Dec. 15, Greg Risling, spokesman for the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s office said Monday.
Lovell is accused of shooting Owen, 53, multiple times shortly after the deputy arrived at the 3200 block of West Avenue J-7 responding to a residential burglary call.
Lovell allegedly then jumped into the sergeant’s patrol vehicle while a second deputy arrived at the scene, prosecutors said.
The defendant is charged with ramming the second deputy’s vehicle with Owen’s patrol car. Lovell then allegedly fled into a nearby residence where he held two victims at knifepoint, prosecutors added. Deputies arrested the defendant soon after.
Lovell is being held without bail.
If convicted as charged, the defendant faces the death penalty or life in prison without the possibility of parole. A decision on whether to seek capital punishment will be made at a later date.
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