AP File / Santa Monica Police Department

Juliana Redding was found dead in her Santa Monica apartment in 2008.

Jury selection is slated to begin Monday in the long-awaited murder trial of Kelly Soo Park, whom Southern California prosecutors allege strangled a young actress and model with her bare hands nearly five years ago.

Park, 47, allegedly worked as “muscle,” or an enforcer, for a wealthy doctor and businessman, officials charge.

Prosecutors say Park stalked and killed Juliana Redding, 21, in her Santa Monica apartment in 2008 after a Dr. Munir Uwaydah dispatched her to "intimidate and threaten" the young woman, according to court documents cited by the Los Angeles Times.

Redding — an aspiring model and actress from Tucson, Arizona who had landed a few bit parts in low-budget independent films — was discovered beaten to death in her upscale Santa Monica apartment on March 17, 2008, according to a statement from the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office.

Earlier reports said Redding had dialed 911 for help when the assailant apparently grabbed the phone and hung it up.

Prosecutors say Uwaydah had dated the young model, according to the Los Angeles Times, and was reportedly planning to launch a pharmaceutical business with Greg Redding, Juliana’s father. But the prospective partnership fell apart just days before Juliana’s death, according to the Times.

Uwaydah, a spinal surgeon from Marina Del Rey, has since left the country and has not been charged in Redding’s death, but prosecutors allege Park and her boyfriend worked as “debt collectors” for the doctor on at least two other occasions.

Prosecutors say Park and her boyfriend strong-armed one man into making payments on a $350,000 judgment in 2008. And two years later — around the time Redding was found beaten and strangled in her apartment – the duo allegedly intimidated a bank manager who had withdrawn from a business deal with Uwaydah.

NBC News

Kelly Soo Park, 47, is accused of killing an aspiring actress and model in 2008 on orders of a wealthy California doctor and businessman,

According to court documents cited by the Los Angeles Times, Park officially worked as Uwaydah’s real estate broker and financial assistant but was paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to also serve as an enforcer for the well-heeled doctor.

Park and her boyfriend were arrested in June 2010, but prosecutors declined to immediately charge him in connection with Redding's murder, according to NBCLosAngeles.

Uwaydah left the United States after Park was arrested and has since lived in Lebanon, according to court documents. He has not been charged with a crime as prosecutors have said they are "not seeking to prove that [Park] murdered Ms. Redding at the direction of Dr. Uwaydah," but, rather, that he directed Park to threaten the Redding.

DNA evidence obtained at the scene of the crime was traced to Park, according to testimony in secret grand jury proceedings, the Times reported.

Park has pleaded not guilty to one count of murder.

KCRA

The 12-year-old brother of Leila Fowler, shown in a screen grab from video, was arrested Saturday on murder charges in her death.

The 12-year-old brother of a California girl found stabbed to death in their home last month was arrested Saturday, authorities said.

Calaveras County Sheriff Gary Kuntz told reporters that Leila Fowler's brother, who had said that an intruder killed her, was taken into custody after a two-week investigation. Kuntz said the boy would be charged with homicide, NBC station KCRA of Sacramento reported.

The 8-year-old girl and her brother were home alone on the afternoon of April 27 at their Valley Springs home when she was killed, KCRA reported, citing school district superintendent Mark Campbell, who met with the parents. The parents were at a Little League game in the small town at the time of the attack, Campbell said.

Officials said at first that Fowler's brother told them he had found her body and described her killer as a tall man with long gray hair. The county coroner told KCRA that Fowler died of shock and hemorrhaging caused by multiple stab wounds.

Authorities searched the home and neighborhood, while dive teams searched two reservoirs near the house. A neighbor who told authorities a man ran from the home was discredited, KCRA reported. Investigators have said there was no sign of a burglary or robbery.

Her death and her brother's account of a murderous intruder put the town of about 7,400 on edge. 

"Nobody is staying alone," parent James Barci told KCRA in April.

Rich Pedroncelli / AP

Teacher Cecilia Richardson helps a student tie a ribbon honoring third-grader Leila Fowler, at Jenny Lind Elementary School in Valley Springs, Calif., on April 29.

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'We will not rest': Sheriff hunts California girl's killer

Town grows nervous as girl's killer is hunted

Rich Pedroncelli / AP

Robin and Scott Spivey walk past the wreckage of their Tudor-style dream home on Monday. They had to abandon it when the ground gave way causing it to drop 10 feet below the street in Lakeport, Calif. Officials believe that water that has bubbled to the surface is playing a role in the collapse of the hillside subdivision, forcing the evacuation of eight homes and endangering another 10.

LAKEPORT, Calif. -- Scott and Robin Spivey had a sinking feeling that something was wrong with their home when cracks began snaking across their walls in March.

The cracks soon turned into gaping fractures, and within two weeks their 600-square-foot garage broke from the house and the entire property — manicured lawn and all — dropped 10 feet below the street.

It wasn't long before the houses on both sides collapsed as the ground gave way in the Spivey's neighborhood in Lake County, about 100 miles north of San Francisco.

"We want to know what is going on here," said Scott Spivey, a former city building inspector who lived in his four-bedroom, Tudor-style dream home for 11 years.

Eight homes are now abandoned and 10 more are under notice of imminent evacuation as a hilltop with sweeping vistas of Clear Lake and the Mount Konocti volcano swallows the subdivision built 30 years ago.

The situation has become so bad that mail delivery was ended to keep carriers out of danger.

"It's a slow-motion disaster," said Randall Fitzgerald, a writer who bought his home in the Lakeside Heights project a year ago.

Unlike sinkholes of Florida that can gobble homes in an instant, this collapse in hilly volcanic country can move many feet on one day and just a fraction of an inch the next.

Officials believe water that has bubbled to the surface is playing a role in the destruction. But nobody can explain why suddenly there is plentiful water atop the hill in a county with groundwater shortages.

Rich Pedroncelli / AP

Jagtar Singh gazes from the doorway of one of the bedrooms that collapsed as the ground gave way beneath his home in Lakeport, Calif.

"That's the big question," said Scott De Leon, county public works director. "We have a dormant volcano, and I'm certain a lot of things that happen here (in Lake County) are a result of that, but we don't know about this."

Other development on similar soil in the county is stable, county officials said.

While some of the subdivision movement is occurring on shallow fill, De Leon said a geologist has warned that the ground could be compromised down to bedrock 25 feet below and that cracks recently appeared in roads well beyond the fill.

"Considering this is a low rainfall year and the fact it's letting go now after all of these years, and the magnitude that it's letting go, well it's pretty monumental," De Leon said.

County officials have inspected the original plans for the project and say it was developed by a reputable engineering firm then signed off on by the public works director at the time.

"I can only presume that they were checked prior to approval," De Leon said.

The sinkage has prompted county crews to redirect the subdivision's sewage 300 feet through an overland pipe as manholes in the 10-acre development collapsed.

Consultant Tom Ruppenthal found two small leaks in the county water system that he said weren't big enough to account for the amount of water that is flowing along infrastructure pipes and underground fissures, but they could be contributing to another source.

"It's very common for groundwater to shift its course," said Ruppenthal of Utility Services Associates in Seattle. "I think the groundwater has shifted."

If the county can't get the water and sewer service stabilized, De Leon said all 30 houses in the subdivision will have to be abandoned.

The owners of six damaged homes said they need help from the government.

The Lake County Board of Supervisors asked Gov. Jerry Brown to declare an emergency so funding might be available to stabilize utilities and determine the cause of the collapse. On May 6, state Sen. Noreen Evans, D-Santa Rosa, wrote a letter of support asking Brown for immediate action. The California Emergency Management Agency said Brown was still assessing the situation.

On Wednesday, the state sent a water resources engineer and a geologist to look at the problem. Sen. Dianne Feinstein sent a representative the next day.

Lake County, with farms, wineries and several Indian casinos, was shaped by earthquake fault movement and volcanic explosions that helped create the Coast Ranges of California. Clear Lake, popular for boating and fishing, is the largest fresh water lake wholly located in the state.

It is not unusual for groundwater in the region to make its way to the surface then subside. Many natural hot springs and geysers receded underground in the early 1900s and have since been tapped for geothermal power.

Homeowners now wonder whether fissures have opened below their hilltop, allowing water to seep to the surface. But they're so perplexed they also talk about the land being haunted and are considering asking the local Native American tribe if the hilltop was an ancient graveyard.

"Someone said it must be hexed," said Blanka Doren, a 72-year-old German immigrant who poured her life savings into the house she bought in 1999 so she could live on the rental income.

The home shares a wall with her neighbor, Jagtar Singh — who had two days of notice to move his wife, 4-year-old daughter and his parents before the hill behind the back of his home collapsed — taking the underside of his house and leaving the carpet dangling.

Doren is afraid that as Singh's house falls it will take hers with it. Already cracks have spread across her floors.

Damaged houses in the subdivision have been tagged for mandatory removal, but the hillside is so unstable it can't support the heavy equipment necessary to perform the job.

"This was our first home," said Singh, who noticed a problem in April when he could see light between the wall and floor of his bedroom. A geotechnical company offered no solutions.

"We didn't know it would be that major, but in one week we were gone," he said.

So far insurance companies have left the owners of the homes — valued between $200,000 and $250,000, or twice the median price in the county — dangling too. Subsidence is not covered, homeowners said. So until someone figures out whether something else is going on, they'll be in limbo.

"It's a tragedy, really," contractor Dean Pick said as he took photos for an insurance company. "I've never seen anything like it. At least that didn't have the Pacific Ocean eating away at it." 

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A mental health patient obsessed by the killings at Sandy Hook Elementary School is in custody after escaping from an Orange County facility the day before, authorities said.

Norris Phuoc Nguyen returned to the Royale Health Care Center at Bristol Street and Warner Avenue in Santa Ana at 4 p.m. Saturday, said Anthony Bertagna, spokesman for the Santa Ana Police Department.

Friday afternoon, Nguyen walked away from the Royale Health Care Center, where he has been detained since December 2012.

Police said the 23-year-old told them he visited a friend while he was away from the facility, and it does not appear Nguyen committed any crimes while he was gone.

Authorities became familiar with Nguyen -- who has been diagnosed with schizophrenia and repeatedly detained and institutionalized -- in August 2011. At that time, he walked into the Westminster Police Department dressed in camouflage and holding an assault rifle, saying he wanted to "die by cop," Garden Grove Police Chief Kevin Raney said.

The weapon was not loaded, the chief said, adding that Nguyen did not have a permit for the firearm.

Nguyen was questioned, and police found he was fixated on a teacher at a Garden Grove elementary school that he had attended, Raney said, declining to name the school.

"We have statements and we have the firm belief that he is committed, unfortunately, to harming children at this specific school," Raney said.

Nguyen had been detained periodically since then, Raney said, until it became apparent in interviews with him in December that he was obsessed by the massacre that left 26 dead at a Newtown, Conn., elementary school on Dec. 14, 2012.

Nguyen has spoken repeatedly both about protecting children and endangering them, Raney said.

Nearly two weeks ago, Nguyen's mother, who lives in Huntington Beach, tried to gain custody of her son at a court hearing, but the judge refused to have him released, Raney said.

Related:

• Emotions run high in debate over future of Sandy Hook school
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• Investigators: Adam Lanza surrounded by weapons at home; attack took less than 5 minutes

A raging 28,000-acre wildfire that sent thousands of people fleeing from their homes in Southern California was about 56 percent contained and evacuation orders were lifted Saturday, officials said.

The Springs Fire has charred a 44-square mile swatch across Ventura and Los Angeles counties.

High temperatures, dry vegetation and strong winds helped stoke the blaze, which began Thursday off the Ventura Freeway.

Fifteen homes have been damaged as close to 1,900 firefighters backed by air tankers and helicopters have worked to bring the flames under control, according to a release from the Ventura County Fire Department.

Forecasters expected increased humidity over the weekend, which they expected would help firefighters, who had battled early Santa Ana winds. The strong gusts blew from inland regions toward the coast and drove the Springs Fire toward the Pacific Ocean this week but died down on Friday.

“It’s a total turnaround from what we had,” Kurt Kaplan, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Oxnard, Calif., told the Associated Press of the break in the weather.

Slideshow: California wildfires

David Mcnew / Getty Images

Firefighters battle a growing wildfire that reached the beaches in Ventura County and pushes its way toward the upscale city of Malibu.

Launch slideshow

“Firefighters continue to construct control line and mop up operations. Firefighters are working in a challenging environment, with the potential for fire flare-ups throughout the day,” the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said in a release. “A low pressure weather system has developed over the fire bringing higher humidity, lower temperatures, [and] creating an opportunity to increase containment.”

Capt. Mike Lindberry of the Ventura County Fire Department said that workers planned to take advantage of the improved conditions to get a hold on the fire.

“That will give us a chance because it’s going to really bring that fire activity down quite a bit,” Lindberry told the AP on Saturday. “I think we will make some significant progress,”

Firefighters still faced the challenges of fighting the flames in the scrubby brush areas where the fire spread.

“It feels … like you’re always behind,” U.S. Forest Service Division Chief Steve Seltzner told NBC Los Angeles. “Just about the time you get caught up, the fire is out-flanking you.”

The Pacific Coast Highway was reopened on Friday night after a nine-mile stretch was shut down on Thursday evening as flames crawled down slopes toward the coast.

“The hillside is subject to falling debris and rock slides as there is little vegetation,” the California Department of Transportation cautioned in a release.

Related:

• 'Incendiary summer': Early wildfires bode ill for California
• 'Monster' California wildfire reaches ocean, pushes toward Malibu
• Thousands in Calif. wildfire's path evacuated

This story was originally published on Sat May 4, 2013 7:15 AM EDT

Southern California firefighters battled a series of sprawling, brush-fueled wildfires on Friday, including one that had blazed a trail to the beach in Ventura County and was pushing toward Malibu before a 180-degree shift in winds sent the massive blaze barreling northeast, officials said.

At least six fires flared up over the last two days as high temperatures, low humidity and brittle brush left the state a veritable tinderbox. Conditions were expected to improve by Friday evening, according to officials.

The so-called Springs Fire, which howling Santa Ana winds had driven through unusually dry vegetation, was burning back toward the community of Newbury Park around 4 p.m. local time (7 p.m. ET), Ventura County Fire Department spokesman Bill Nash said.

“We still need to get ahead of this fire and get containment around it,” Nash said.

More than 4,000 homes remained in danger Friday afternoon from the fire, Nash said. Eight helicopters and six winged aircraft joined roughly 10,000 firefighters in attacking the blaze, he added.

By 6:30 p.m. PT Friday, the fire had burned 28,000 acres, NBCLosAngeles.com reported. 

No injuries have been reported and no homes have been destroyed, according to authorities.

In the city of Glendale, a brush fire erupted just after 2:30 p.m., threatening homes, prompting evacuations at a hospital and school, and forcing the partial closure of a freeway, according to NBCLosAngeles.com.

Authorities were preparing a shelter for expected evacuations of neighborhoods at the base of a hill in Glenoaks Canyon and Chevy Chase Canyon, Glendale Police Sgt. Tom Lorenz said.

“If anyone is living in the city of Glendale within those two canyons, please be prepared to leave. It could happen at any time,” Lorenz said.

Slideshow: California wildfires

Jonathan Alcorn / Reuters

Firefighters battle a growing wildfire that reached the beaches in Ventura County and pushes its way toward the upscale city of Malibu.

Launch slideshow

An eight-mile stretch of the Pacific Coast Highway was shut down for a time on Thursday night as bright orange flames from the Springs Fire raced down scrubby hillsides toward the Pacific Ocean.

"We've got hot, dirty, unglamorous firefighting work going on right now, guys with shovels trying to scratch out lines on the ground," Nash said in the early hours of Friday. "We've got those guys on these steep hillsides in the dark with nothing but the light of the fire and a flashlight."

Dry winds from inland to the ocean and high temperatures -- Camarillo reported a record high for the date of 96 before noon Friday --  had been fueling the Springs Fire. Though the nearly 1,000 firefighters on the scene got a brief overnight reprieve as the humidity jumped and winds died down.

The wind picked up again after sunrise, but by 1 p.m. Pacific time, the wind turned onshore, temperatures had dropped 11 degrees and humidity shot up to 19 percent. Warnings remained in effect, the National Weather Service reported.

“We’re looking good,” Battalion Chief Fred Burris of the Ventura County Fire Department said on Friday, according to NBC Los Angeles. “We believe we’re past the major structure threat at this time.”

“The firemen have been doing a really great job of keeping it away from the houses,” said Sara Mallam, a resident of Newbury Park, near Thousand Oaks, Calif. “It is kind of scary to see it get so close, but they really seem to know what they’re doing.”

Complicating the situation is the extremely dry plant life left from a season in which only about five inches of rain fell, officials said.

"We’re faced with a situation right now where the vegetation on the hillsides, the moisture level is what we typically see in August," Nash said. 

The cause of the fire remained under investigation Friday. There had been no lightning or other natural fire-starting phenomenon in the area when the blaze began, Nash said.

In Riverside County, hundreds of firefighters had begun to gain control of a wind-lashed wildfire that consumed one home and led to the evacuation of hundreds of others.

The Riverside County fire, dubbed the Summit Fire, remained at just under 3,000 acres Friday morning and was about 65 percent contained, according to a Cal Fire incident report. Firefighters worked to improve containment lines around the raging blaze that threatened homes on Wednesday, but one building had been destroyed.

Two of the 650 firefighters trying to tame the blaze sustained non-life-threatening injuries, according to the report.

Additionally, more than 1,000 firefighters were battling a third major wildfire, designated the Panther Fire, Friday in rugged timberland in Northern California’s Tehama County about 30 miles east of Chico.

Related:

• Thousands in Calif. wildfire's path evacuated
• 'Monster' California wildfire reaches ocean, pushes toward Malibu