Arrest Made in Slaying of Witness

Los Angeles police on Tuesday announced the arrest of a 34-year-old man in connection with the slaying last month of a West Hills man who was allegedly killed to prevent him from testifying in court.

Randall Bruce Williams was booked on suspicion of murder late Monday for the execution-style killing of Edward James Navaroli, said Det. Rick Swanston of the LAPD’s West Valley Division.

Williams, a fugitive for nearly a month, called police to surrender after the search for him resulted in the arrest of several associates on outstanding warrants and narcotics charges, Swanston said.

“He knew we were closing in on him,” the detective said.

Williams was arrested without incident by homicide detectives Dave Szabo and Steve Galeria at his cousin’s house on Knapp Street in Northridge, Swanston said. He is being held without bail in the Van Nuys Jail and is scheduled for arraignment today.

Police suspect that Williams ambushed Navaroli and his girlfriend as the couple walked from their truck in front of the West Hills home where they rented a room. The girlfriend, whose identity is being withheld for her protection, was severely injured in the shooting, but police said she was able to identify Williams as the shooter.

Navaroli had been placed in a witness protection program after receiving death threats for his anticipated testimony in a case involving a series of commercial burglaries last summer in the West Valley. Williams was a suspect in the case but was never charged, police said.

The man charged in the burglaries--Kenneth Leighton--is a close friend of Williams, police said. He was arrested for allegedly intimidating Navaroli.

“Don’t you know I can have you killed?” one source quoted Leighton as saying to Navaroli after learning that Navaroli was cooperating with the police.

Swanston said Leighton has not been eliminated as a suspect in Navaroli’s killing.

Leighton’s attorney, Ron Lewis, has denied that Leighton threatened Navaroli and said that Navaroli’s expected testimony in a burglary case was hardly a motive for murder.

“It doesn’t make sense,” he said.

Navaroli’s slaying was one of two recent deaths that prompted the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors last month to call for a review of the county’s witness protection program.

In Navaroli’s case, he and his girlfriend had been relocated to an undisclosed location in the Valley after he was threatened, police said. But the couple ignored the advice of police and moved back to the West Valley neighborhood where they were known.

In the other case, 64-year-old Dong Dinh was gunned down in San Jose on Oct. 23, after his son, Truong Dinh, testified for the prosecution against his former cohorts in the Asian Boyz gang. Dinh’s family was critical of authorities for not offering them protection as Truong Dinh helped make the state’s case in the multiple-murder trial.