(Michael C. Mejia booking photo provided by law enforcement.)
The gang member who admitted he killed Whittier Police Officer Keith Boyer pleaded not guilty to murder and other charges for a second time Monday.
Michael Christopher Mejia first denied the charges after his arrest and entered the second set of not guilty pleas after a judge held him to answer to the charges at a preliminary hearing.
During that hearing in June, prosecutors played portions of an audio recorded interview made several days after Officer Boyer was murdered, and Mejia can be heard confessing to shooting Boyer, shooting a second Whittier officer, and killing his own cousin earlier that day.
"I guess you guys have everything down -- smoked my cousin, smoked the cop. ... I mean, what else do you guys want? I shot another cop," Mejia said in the recording.
Officer Boyer was shot to death in February after stopping to investigate a traffic collision February 20 near Colima Road and Mar Vista Street.