Cimarron Bernard Bell – California Serial Killer
Cimarron Bernard Bell is an American convicted serial killer responsible for four murders in Los Angeles County, California, during two separate episodes between November 2003 and January 2004. His victims were his 22-year-old girlfriend, Ineka Edmondson, followed approximately two and a half months later by three men who were lured to Bell's South Whittier residence through what prosecutors described as a fraudulent automobile sale. Financial motives played a central role in both crimes.
Bell, born April 7, 1974, was 29 years old when the murders occurred. The killings were ultimately connected to him after a woman close to Bell provided investigators with information about statements he had made concerning the deaths. Bell was convicted of four counts of first-degree murder with special circumstances in 2011 and sentenced to death.
The Murder of Ineka Edmondson
Bell's first confirmed victim was 22-year-old Ineka Edmondson of Compton, California, a woman with whom he had been romantically involved. According to prosecutors, Bell and Edmondson were also associated through a stolen-check and check-cashing operation. Problems developed within the scheme after one of the participants was arrested and checking accounts connected with the operation were frozen.
Prosecutors said Bell became convinced that Edmondson was responsible for what had happened and suspected that she was taking money from accounts for herself. Evidence presented during Bell's trial indicated that his distrust of Edmondson escalated until he decided to kill her.
On November 11, 2003, Edmondson was shot three times in the head at close range. Her black Toyota Corolla was subsequently found in a largely industrial section of La Habra, California, with Edmondson's body inside. She had died from the gunshot wounds. At the time of the discovery, investigators did not yet have enough evidence to identify Bell publicly as her killer.
The Edmondson homicide would later become important when another woman in Bell's life spoke with investigators. According to trial testimony, Bell had discussed Edmondson's killing and had even taken the woman to the location associated with the homicide. That information eventually helped investigators connect Bell to a murder that initially appeared separate from the triple homicide that followed.
The Automobile Sale Plot
By January 2004, Bell was attempting to obtain money through another scheme. He advertised his customized 2001 Chevrolet Monte Carlo for sale at an unusually low price. Prosecutors maintained that Bell never genuinely intended to sell the vehicle. Instead, the advertisement was designed to attract someone who would arrive with enough cash to purchase it, allowing Bell to rob and kill the prospective buyer.
Mario Larios, 23, responded to the offer. Larios was associated with National Fence in Santa Fe Springs and was interested in buying Bell's Monte Carlo. Rather than going to meet Bell alone, Larios was accompanied by two other men: Edgar Valles, 22, and Fernando Pina, 25.
Telephone records and later testimony helped establish the events leading up to the killings. On January 26, Bell arranged to meet with the prospective buyer. The following day, January 27, 2004, Larios, Valles and Pina met Bell regarding the vehicle. The men were traveling in a white Mercedes-Benz.
Bell reportedly met the men away from his residence before convincing them to follow him to his home in the South Whittier area. Prosecutors argued that the change in location was deliberate. Bell did not want the financial transaction to occur in a public place where witnesses might be present.
The January 27, 2004 Triple Murder
Briaell Michael Lee, then 21 years old, was waiting at Bell's residence. Evidence later presented in Lee's criminal proceedings showed that Bell had instructed Lee to remain in a back room until Bell returned with the prospective buyer and his companions.
Once Larios, Valles and Pina were inside or around the residence, Bell began shooting. The supposed automobile transaction had become an ambush. Prosecutors established that Bell shot two of the victims and that Lee fatally shot Mario Larios.
According to Lee's later statements to police, Larios attempted to escape as the shooting unfolded. Bell ordered Lee to stop him. Lee initially fired and missed. Lee later claimed that Bell threatened to kill him if he did not shoot Larios. Lee then shot Larios, killing him. Although Lee relied on the alleged threat in attempting to explain his participation, a jury ultimately convicted him of Larios's second-degree murder.
After the three men had been killed, their bodies were placed in the white Mercedes-Benz. Mario Larios and Edgar Valles were placed in the rear passenger area of the vehicle, while Fernando Pina was placed in the trunk. Evidence presented during Bell's trial indicated that two of the bodies had been wrapped in plastic and that the victims' pockets appeared to have been emptied, supporting the prosecution's contention that robbery was a motive.
The Mercedes was transported away from Bell's residence and abandoned at a shopping center parking lot in the 14500 block of Telegraph Road in La Mirada, California. The vehicle remained there until January 30, 2004, three days after the killings. A person noticed an odor coming from the Mercedes and opened an unlocked rear door, leading to the discovery of Larios and Valles. Investigators then searched the vehicle and found Pina in the trunk. Authorities determined that all three men had died from multiple gunshot wounds.
Confirmed Victims
- Ineka Edmondson, 22 – Killed November 11, 2003, in La Habra, California. Edmondson, Bell's girlfriend, was shot three times in the head at close range. Her body was found in her black Toyota Corolla in an industrial area of La Habra. Prosecutors said Bell believed she had taken money connected to a check-cashing operation in which they were involved.
- Mario Larios, 23 – Killed January 27, 2004, at Bell's residence in the South Whittier area of Los Angeles County. Larios had responded to an advertisement offering Bell's Chevrolet Monte Carlo for sale. During the attack, Larios attempted to escape and was fatally shot by Bell's accomplice, Briaell Michael Lee, after Bell ordered Lee to stop him. Larios's body was found January 30 in a Mercedes-Benz abandoned in La Mirada.
- Edgar Valles, 22 – Killed January 27, 2004, at Bell's residence in South Whittier. Valles accompanied Larios to inspect the advertised Monte Carlo and was shot during the planned robbery and ambush. His body was found with Larios in the rear passenger area of the Mercedes-Benz in La Mirada on January 30, 2004.
- Fernando Pina, 25 – Killed January 27, 2004, at Bell's residence in South Whittier. Pina accompanied Larios and Valles to meet Bell concerning the automobile. He was shot to death during the ambush. His body was concealed in the trunk of the victims' Mercedes-Benz and discovered in La Mirada on January 30, 2004.
Investigation and Arrest
The discovery of the Mercedes immediately gave Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department homicide investigators a connection among the three January victims. Detectives learned that Larios and Valles had last been seen leaving their workplace in Santa Fe Springs on the morning of January 27. Investigators eventually determined that the men had gone to the Whittier area because of the automobile Bell had advertised for sale.
A major break came after another girlfriend of Bell became involved in a credit-card fraud investigation. She told authorities that Bell had made statements indicating that he had killed four people. Her information connected the triple homicide not only to Bell but also to the previously unsolved murder of Ineka Edmondson.
Investigators obtained a search warrant for Bell's residence in the 11900 block of Inez Avenue in the unincorporated Whittier area. Bell and Briaell Lee were arrested in February 2004 in connection with the three men's deaths. As the investigation developed, prosecutors also charged Bell with Edmondson's November 2003 murder.
Trial and Conviction
Bell eventually went to trial in Los Angeles County Superior Court in Norwalk. Prosecutors portrayed the four murders as calculated killings driven largely by money. Edmondson was killed because Bell believed she was interfering with or stealing proceeds from a fraudulent check operation, while Larios, Valles and Pina were deliberately attracted to Bell through the false promise of purchasing an automobile.
On April 5, 2011, a jury convicted Cimarron Bernard Bell of four counts of first-degree murder. Jurors also found special-circumstance allegations true, including multiple murders, murder for financial gain and murder while lying in wait. Those findings made Bell eligible for the death penalty under California law.
During the penalty phase, prosecutors argued that the calculated nature of the killings justified a death sentence. On April 19, 2011, after approximately a day and a half of deliberations, the jury recommended that Bell be sentenced to death rather than life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.
Bell's formal sentencing was postponed from earlier scheduled dates. California's official condemned-prisoner records list his judgment of death as August 9, 2011. Bell was subsequently received into California's condemned-prisoner population, where he has remained under a sentence of death.
Briaell Michael Lee
Bell's accomplice in the January 2004 triple homicide, Briaell Michael Lee, was tried separately. The evidence established that Lee was present at Bell's residence when the three prospective automobile buyers arrived and that Lee personally shot Mario Larios.
Lee was acquitted of the murders of the other two men but convicted of second-degree murder for killing Larios. Jurors also found that he personally and intentionally discharged a firearm causing death. He received 15 years to life for the murder plus an additional consecutive 25 years to life for the firearm enhancement, producing an aggregate sentence of 40 years to life.
Lee later challenged his conviction and sentence, including arguing that he had acted because Bell threatened to kill him. His murder conviction was upheld. Court records concerning Lee also provided a detailed reconstruction of the automobile-sale plot, including Bell's instructions that Lee wait inside the residence, Bell's initiation of the shooting and Bell's order for Lee to kill Larios when Larios attempted to flee.
Pattern and Motive
Although Bell's four confirmed murders occurred during only two episodes, they displayed a consistent willingness to use calculated violence for financial purposes. Edmondson was someone Bell knew personally and suspected of interfering with criminal proceeds. The three January victims, by contrast, were drawn into Bell's control through an apparently legitimate business transaction.
The automobile advertisement was particularly important to the prosecution's case because it demonstrated planning before the three men ever arrived. Bell advertised a valuable customized vehicle at a price intended to attract a buyer, arranged the meeting, moved the transaction to his residence, positioned an armed accomplice inside and then attacked the men after they arrived. Their bodies were subsequently concealed in their own vehicle and moved to another city in an attempt to separate the crime scene from Bell's home.
The murders of Ineka Edmondson, Mario Larios, Edgar Valles and Fernando Pina transformed what initially appeared to investigators to be separate homicide investigations into a single prosecution involving four calculated killings. Bell's convictions established him as the person principally responsible for the two murder episodes, while Lee's separate conviction confirmed his direct role in the killing of Mario Larios.
