Trio Sought in Killings of Cocaine Suspect, 2 Others

Los Angeles-area police Thursday were searching for two armed men and a woman who broke into the Palms apartment of a suspected cocaine dealer and killed him and two others.

The suspects, armed with guns, used an unspecified ruse to gain entry into the Glendon Avenue apartment of Keith Hodnett at about 11 p.m. Tuesday, Los Angeles Police Cmdr. William Booth said.

Hodnett, whose apartment had been raided by police last November in a search for weapons and drugs, was held hostage overnight along with a woman whom an acquaintance identified as his girlfriend, Latanya Owens, 21.

Also held hostage was her visiting 20-year-old sister, Evelyn, and a man police said they have been unable to identify.

After holding the occupants hostage overnight, police said a male and female suspect left with Hodnett, 27, at about 8 a.m. Wednesday and took him to an apartment that belonged to Gino Simmons, 27, on North Cedar Avenue in Inglewood. The male suspect who had been left behind then stabbed the Owens sisters and the unidentified male.

Evelyn Owens died. Her sister was able to telephone for an ambulance. Both she and the visitor are expected to recover, hospital officials said.

Simmons and Hodnett were later found strangled in Simmons’ apartment, police said.

Inglewood Police Sgt. Harold Moret said Simmons was not known to Inglewood police.

However, court records show that Hodnett had a long record of arrests for nonviolent crimes such as auto theft. At the time of his death, he was free on $2,500 bail awaiting sentencing in Santa Monica Superior Court after having pleaded guilty to possession of cocaine and possession of a firearm by a felon.