Reputed Gang Member Held in Student’s Slaying

WOODLAND HILLS â€”  Cracking a 2-year-old murder case, police arrested a reputed gang member Friday in the fatal stabbing of a Taft High School student who was attacked by a group of youths as he waited for a bus.

Sources identified the suspect as Oscar Andres Lopez, now 18, who is currently in county jail on charges of participating in a series of armed robberies. The case is being reviewed by prosecutors in Juvenile Court, where records are confidential, because Lopez was 16 at the time.

Lopez was arrested in the Aug. 5, 1992, stabbing of Lamoun Thames, a 15-year-old South-Central Los Angeles boy who was preparing to enter the 10th grade. Thames was waiting for a bus about 10 p.m. at the corner of Ventura Boulevard and Winnetka Avenue after attending a preseason football practice where a coach had given him a chance to make Taft’s varsity team.

A confidential informant recently came forward and “indicated the juvenile who was responsible for the killing,� said Los Angeles Police Detective Joel Price.

The informant reported that Lopez “had been bragging that he had committed the crime . . . and that he had a $25,000 price on his head,� Price said.

After the slaying, the Los Angeles City Council posted a $25,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of the killer.

Two others, 19-year-old James Han of Calabasas and a 17-year-old juvenile, were arrested Thursday. They “both admitted to being present at the time of the killing and have identified the 18-year-old as the actual stabber,� according to Price.

Prosecutors on Friday declined to file charges against Han and the juvenile. “There’s not sufficient evidence to charge them with the crime,� Price said.

Thames was attacked when a carload of youths pulled up and two people confronted the teen-ager about his gang affiliation, according to Price. Only one person physically attacked Thames, Price said. Police and school officials said at the time that Thames was not associated with any gang.

Lopez was charged April 29 in an armed robbery spree and is being held in lieu of $1-million bail in that case. He and another man, John Anthony Zapata, 20, allegedly committed five armed robberies, one at a westside residence and several at San Fernando Valley businesses.

Talent manager Don Gibble, 24, has also been charged with receiving stolen property after police found identification and credit cards--which had been stolen in the residential robbery--in his possession.

Authorities said Lopez and Gibble were living in a Northridge house with actress Victoria Sellers, who has not yet been charged in the case.

Lopez is charged with attempted murder in a mugging, seven counts of armed robbery and five counts of assault with a firearm.

A preliminary hearing for Lopez in the robbery spree is scheduled for Tuesday, but Zapata’s defense attorney has already requested that the hearing be delayed.

Prosecutors reviewing the stabbing case against Lopez said a decision on what charges to file would be made Monday.