Assassins in L.A. killed on a budget, police say

Good morning, and welcome to the Essential California newsletter. Here’s what you need to know to start your weekend:

• Alleged assassins killed on a budget and left trails of evidence, police say.
• Trump’s pick to lead the Department of Defense was investigated for an alleged sexual assault.
• Looking for the perfect pie this Thanksgiving? Several bakeries in L.A. can help you out.
• And here’s today’s e-newspaper

These tales of revenge feature alleged assassins who killed on a budget

Assassins and hitmen typically conjure up images of calculating killers who hide in the shadows and carefully cover their tracks.

But the alleged assassins in several recent murder-for-hire cases in Los Angeles were not the kind you’d find in John Wick or James Bond movies, my colleagues Matthew Ormseth and Libor Jany report. They were sloppy, sometimes leaving DNA at crime scenes and forgetting to turn off their phones, authorities say.

If you’re looking for unusual crime stories to read this Saturday morning, here are three cases involving alleged hitmen from Chicago who killed on a budget, according to authorities. They flew on Spirit Airlines, slept in cramped hotel rooms and held meetings at In-N-Out burger, police say.

I won’t give away all of the details — the story from Matthew and Libor really is worth reading in its entirety. But here’s how one of the cases starts out.

A fight between roommates ended with a bounty, police say

Julian Bynum and Nasir Warfield were two Chicago natives who lived with each other in Las Vegas.

Tensions between the two erupted after Warfield accused Bynum of stealing $90,000, one of Bynum’s friends told police. Bynum denied he took the money, but Warfield stole his Rolex, the friend said. Bynum in turn took Warfield’s gold chain.

Things got so heated that Warfield allegedly put out a bounty of $20,000 to $30,000 on Bynum’s life, according to an affidavit written by an LAPD detective. Warfield eventually hired two hitmen nicknamed Draco and Chevy, who lived in Los Angeles but were also from Chicago, the detective wrote.

Bynum became concerned enough to move back to Chicago. But he visited a friend in Hollywood and, on the night of Dec. 16, 2022, was shot several times by a gunman as he walked down a street, according to video surveillance footage obtained by detectives.

Warfield, who has not been charged in connection to the shooting, didn’t respond to a request for comment from Matthew and Libor. But his mom told them he had nothing to do with any homicides in Los Angeles.

Julian Bynum was killed Dec. 16, 2022, in North Hollywood.

(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

A clue emerges in another homicide case

A month after Bynum was killed, police found three dead women inside a bullet-riddled white Porsche Macan parked in Benedict Canyon.

The women — Iyana Hutton, Nenah Davis and Destiny Sims — had gone to a concert with friends at the Roxy in West Hollywood.

But when they returned to their AirBnB, two men wearing ski masks and black clothing shot them, one of the surviving victims told LAPD detectives.

Detectives tracked down surveillance footage of a blue Tesla leaving the area after the shooting, and authorities traced the car to a high-rise in Beverly Hills, where they were able to identify three suspects and, in the process, discovered a clue linking one of them to Bynum’s homicide.

As promised, I won’t give away the entire story from Matthew and Libor. It’s somewhat nuanced and, well, I’ll stop before I mention too much. But feel free to email what you think.

The week’s biggest stories

Then-President Trump is interviewed by “Fox & Friends” co-host Pete Hegseth during an event at the White House on April 6, 2017.

(Andrew Harnik / Associated Press)

Trump’s pick to lead the Department of Defense was investigated for an alleged sexual assault

• Fox News personality Pete Hegseth, who was nominated by Trump for Defense secretary, was investigated for an alleged sexual assault in the city of Monterey in 2017, according to a statement from the city.
• Hegseth’s nomination is just one of several Trump Cabinet picks that will test the Republican majority in the Senate.

Kamala Harris would enter the race for California governor with a strong advantage, a poll found

• Nearly half of voters said they would be very or somewhat likely to support Harris if she entered the 2026 gubernatorial race, according to a poll co-sponsored by The Times.
• The poll is among the first to examine Harris’ future in politics after this month’s election. A Harris representative did not respond to a request for comment.

In a historic shift, the L.A. County Board of Supervisors will nearly double in size

• The passage of Measure G, which expands the board to nine from five, marks a dramatic reshaping of a government that has not fundamentally changed for over a century.
• The expansion of the board is L.A. County’s most important government reform in decades, the Editorial Board writes.

The Mountain fire could have been worse

• Officials are praising the dire warnings that prepared residents and pre-positioned resources, as well as the dangerous firefighting done against wind-driven flames.
• Her house burned to the ground. But firefighters saved something precious.
• Experts still disagree over whether homes can be completely fireproofed in a wind-driven ember fire.
• Before-and-after satellite photos show the destructive path of the Mountain fire.

More big stories

• Here’s why LA28 officials are not worried about Trump’s support for the Olympics.
• The new LAPD chief says people aren’t calling the police enough — and that needs to change.
• The expansion of the San Luis Reservoir is set to boost California’s water-storing capacity.
• LAUSD abruptly ended new admissions rules for gifted students after sparking the fury of parents.
• California removed a slur targeting Indigenous women from location names.

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This week’s must reads

Workers excavate fossils at the Gnatalie quarry near Bluff, Utah.

(Natural History Museum of L.A. County)

She’s big. She’s green. And she’s L.A.’s newest icon. Meet Gnatalie the dinosaur. This is the story of her 150-million-year journey from the Jurassic to Los Angeles’ Exposition Park.

More great reads

• ‘Urgent’ text messages pushed these donors to give thousands of times to political candidates.
• He was a huge Korean TV star. Now he’s broke and lives in an amusement park.
• China’s queer influencers thrive despite growing censorship of LGBTQ+ content.
• L.A. Olympics boss Reynold Hoover uses wartime problem-solving skills to plan the 2028 Games.

How can we make this newsletter more useful? Send comments to essentialcalifornia@latimes.com.

For your weekend

You can build your own 9-inch pie at Pop Pie Co. in Costa Mesa, including flavors such as key lime, caramel apple crumble, bourbon pecan and pumpkin cream cheese.

(Cindy Carcamo / Los Angeles Times)

Going out

• 🥧 Looking for the prefect pie this Thanksgiving? Several bakeries in L.A. can help you out.
• 🎁 These holiday markets in L.A. provide a chance to find one-of-a-kind gifts for everyone on your list.
• ⛷️ Ready to ski? Here’s when the season starts at Mountain High, Mammoth and other resorts.
• 🏋️ This “slow” strength training method is the fountain of youth, according to 90-year-olds in L.A.
• 🎢 Here’s what the new Tiana’s Bayou Adventure ride means for Disneyland.

Staying in

• 📺 Ted Danson and Mike Schur reunite for a tender, humorous meditation on loneliness and the search for late-in-life purpose with Netflix’s “A Man on the Inside.”
• 📚 A cache of letters between Joan Didion and Eve Babitz are featured in new a book about the unlikely friendship between two seminal L.A. writers before they went their separate ways.
• 📺 “Say Nothing,” a historical drama on FX, draws strength from telling a focused story about the Troubles, our critic writes.
• 🍲 Black chefs across L.A. share the recipes that define their Thanksgiving holidays.
• ✏️ Get our free daily crossword puzzle, sudoku, word search and arcade games.

How well did you follow the news this week? Take our quiz.

(Times staff and wire photos)

Last week, who became the most-nominated person in the history of the Grammys with a total of 99 nominations? Plus nine other questions from our weekly news quiz.

Have a great weekend, from the Essential California team

Hunter Clauss, multiplatform editor

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