Break in cold case leads to 39-year-old man, now facing murder charge in L.A. Juvenile Court

"At a Juvenile Court hearing this week in East Lost Angeles, sheriff's deputies led shackled defendants into a courtroom reserved for youths accused of serious crimes. Most were baby-faced teenagers wearing orange jumpsuits. Then they brought out a 39-year-old father of four. The man, Victor Perez, is accused of killing a woman in Hollywood in 2003. But because he was 17 at the time, Perez, who has pleaded not guilty, is being prosecuted as a juvenile - at least for now."

"At a hearing on Monday to justify keeping Perez detained, prosecutors revealed some of the evidence that led to his arrest in 2022. Whereas many cold cases are solved with DNA testing, detectives said it was old-fashioned police work - talking to informants and eventually to Perez himself - that led to an arrest in a case that had gone unsolved for 19 years."

"The killing occurred around 10:30 p.m. on Nov. 28, 2003. After eating Thanksgiving dinner at the home of a family friend, Rosalba Acosta, 42, piled into her family's silver F-150 truck along with her husband, daughter and two sons. Her husband, Jose, had been drinking, so after backing the truck into the street, he switched seats with Rosalba, who was planning to drive the family back to the San Fernando Valley, their son Louis testified Monday."

At a Juvenile Court hearing in East Lost Angeles, deputies led shackled defendants into a courtroom reserved for youths accused of serious crimes. Most were teenagers in orange jumpsuits, and one was 39-year-old Victor Perez, accused of killing a woman in Hollywood in 2003 but prosecuted as a juvenile because he was 17 then. Prosecutors presented evidence to justify keeping Perez detained and said detectives secured an arrest in 2022 through informant interviews and questioning Perez rather than DNA. The killing occurred Nov. 28, 2003, after Thanksgiving dinner when victim Rosalba Acosta was shot as her family left; her son Louis testified and an LAPD officer described the chaotic scene.

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