There are more than 10,000 unsolved crimes in Southern California, most of which are homicides. Unsolved with Steve Gregory highlights cases that have gone cold, hit a brick wall, or just need that one piece of evidence or witness to surface to break the case wide open. The program features law enforcement agencies from Southern California, including the L.A. County Sheriff's Department, the LAPD, the Sheriff departments of Riverside, San Bernardino, and Ventura counties, and federal agencies like the FBI, DEA, and ATF.
On the night of June 10, 2013, 29-year-old Johnny Ray Richards was gunned down while driving around with a childhood friend in La Puente, an area east of Downtown Los Angeles. Steve speaks with Cold Case Detective Richard Tomlin with the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department's Homicide Bureau about the case. Coincidentally, Tomlin was the lead investigator on the case in 2013.
After a day of hanging out the two men were headed to a local video store that happened to be in an area claimed by a gang called the East Side Dukes. According to Richards' friend who wishes to remain nameless, they drove past a light brown sedan (believed to be a 2000s Buick Century) on the 400 block of Gendel Drive. The car made a U-turn toward the direction of Richards' 2002 Honda Civic as Richards continued to drive down the street. Richards and his friend didn't see the sedan behind them after the U-turn and assumed they drove off somewhere into the neighborhood.
When Richards came to a stop sign on Gendel Drive the man who had been driving the brown sedan must have circled around the block because he was standing on the corner ahead of Richards' car with a 9mm handgun and opened fire. The man shot thirteen times at Richards' vehicle hitting both men. Richards drove away as the man walked back to the brown sedan. He crashed his car into a light pole several blocks away, Richards was pronounced dead at the scene. His friend was shot twice in the torso but was transported to a nearby hospital where he survived his wounds.
The shooter is a Hispanic male with a shaved head in his 30s around 5'5 in height, 180-200 lbs, and believed to be a member of the East Side Dukes gang. The street names "Spanky," and "Huero," came up as persons of interest in the investigation, but nearly ten years later no other evidence has surfaced. The killing of Johnny Ray Richards remains unsolved.
If you or someone you know has information on this case dial #250 on your cellphone using the keyword 'Unsolved.'