Carlos Medina Vallejo, Torrance handyman arrested in murder of Los Angeles Bishop David O’Connell. Suspect id as husband of cleric’s housewife who claimed being owed money by the religious figure for unpaid work.
‘This bishop made a huge difference in our community.’ California authorities have arrested the husband of a housekeeper for Auxiliary Bishop David G. O’Connell in connection ‘beloved’ Los Angeles cleric’s slaying over the weekend.
Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna in a Monday press conference alleged that 65-year-old handyman Carlos Medina Vallejo shot and killed the Catholic bishop inside his Hacienda Heights home Saturday.
Medina was arrested by authorities after he originally refused to leave his Torrance home earlier Monday, Luna said. The official said police tracked the suspect by using neighborhood surveillance video linking him to the crime scene.
The alleged killer’s wife, Simona Salazar, 75, was O’Connell’s housekeeper, and Medina also did housework for the slain bishop at times, Luna said.
‘Detectives were told by the tipster that they were concerned because Medina was acting strange, irrational and made comments about the bishop owing him money,’ Luna said.
Suspect’s wife worked as LA Bishop’s housekeeper
Luna said Medina is 65; however, jail records show the suspect as 61. He is being held in lieu of $2-million bail the LA Times reported. O’Connell had served as the auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles since 2015.
Luna said detectives connected Medina to the crime from a surveillance video that showed a vehicle at the O’Connell home about the time of the killing, described as a ‘dark, compact SUV.’ Weapons were found at Medina’s home with ballistic tests now pending.
O’Connell, 69, was killed Saturday afternoon in the Catholic archdiocese-owned home in Hacienda Heights where he lived alone. Luna said the bishop was found in his bedroom with ‘at least one gunshot wound to the upper body.’ He said no firearms were recovered at the scene, and there was no sign of forced entry.
Deputies answering a call for a medical emergency shortly before 1 p.m. Saturday found O’Connell. Paramedics pronounced him dead at the scene.
Asked about who called 911 to report the incident, Luna said he believed a church deacon had gone to O’Connell’s home to check on him after O’Connell was late for a meeting. The sheriff also was asked whether authorities have spoken to the housekeeper.
‘The detectives are absolutely interviewing her,’ Luna said. ‘As far as we know at this time she’s been fully cooperative.’
It was revealed the wife, whose identity was not revealed was not working on the day of the murder. Neighbors said that Medina’s wife had cared for the bishop’s dog for roughly a decade, and that the accused killer also sometimes walked the clergyman’s dog himself.
BREAKING: @LASDHQ takes a man into custody in connection with the killing of Bishop David O’Connell. The man had barricaded himself in his home on Kenwood Ave, Torrance. Neighbor Marty Hernandez says the sheriffs arrived at midnight and the suspect finally emerged at 9 am today pic.twitter.com/jnN5UCwm8a
— Clara Harter (@_ClaraHarter) February 20, 2023
Long distinguished service
Luna said homicide and major crimes detectives worked around the clock in the 48 hours since the bishop’s killing to find the suspect.
‘I can’t tell you how many phone calls I received over the last 48 hours of people who have worked with him in different capacities and this man, this bishop made a huge difference in our community,’ Luna said. ‘He was loved.’
O’Connell had been a priest for 45 years and was a native of Ireland, according to Angelus News, the news outlet of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, the nation’s largest. In 2015, Pope Francis named him one of several auxiliary bishops of the archdiocese.
O’Connell worked in South Los Angeles for years and focused on gang intervention, Angelus News reported. He later sought to broker peace between residents and law enforcement following the violent 1992 uprising after a jury acquitted four white LA police officers in the beating of Rodney King, a Black man.
O’Connell had also served as founder and chairman of the Interdiocesan SoCal Immigration Task Force, helping scores of children who entered the United States without adult companions.
‘For me, it really is a labor of love,’ he said in a 2019 article. ‘This is, I think, what our schools and parishes are all about. Not just for unaccompanied minors but for all our children. There’s an epidemic of hurting children, even the ones who have too much. They feel we’ve abandoned them. And the migrant youths have become a metaphor for our whole society.’
