Couple Arrested in Connection with Fatal Silver Lake Stabbing

SILVER LAKE, CA - Two suspects wanted in connection with stabbings in Silver Lake that left one man dead and a second wounded were booked today after being arrested during a traffic stop in San Diego County, police said.

Michael Lee Stotler and Maya Sharene Mcinnis, both 22 and both from Carlsbad, are suspects in the stabbing death of Omar Ruben Norato, also 22, about 7 p.m. on Feb. 20 near Hoover Street and Sunset Boulevard, police say.

Officers flagged down by someone who told them there had been a stabbing found Norato wounded in the back seat of a vehicle, and another man was found nearby with a stab wound to one of his hands, according to the Los Angeles Police Department.

Norato died after being taken to a hospital. The other victim, whose name was withheld, was treated at a hospital and released.

"Investigators discovered both victims had been involved in a verbal confrontation with the two suspects," according to an LAPD statement. "During the altercation, the first suspect stabbed Norato in the upper torso. At the same time, the second suspect stabbed the second victim in the left hand."

At the time, the first suspect was described as a white man about 20-25 years old and the second a black woman about 20-25 years old -- descriptions that match Stotler and Mcinnis -- and both were believed to be in a black older model Toyota 4-Runner with a shattered passenger window.

Los Angeles police contacted the Carlsbad Police Department on Friday after learning the couple was living in Carlsbad.

A vehicle being driven by Stotler was pulled over by Carlsbad police in the 4600 block of Carlsbad Boulevard shortly before 6 p.m. Friday. Mcinnis was a passenger in the car. Both were arrested without incident.

The two suspects were turned over to LAPD homicide detectives and returned to Los Angeles, where they were booked early this morning, Stotler on suspicion of murder and Mcinnis on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon (not a firearm) with great bodily injury, authorities said.

Stotler was being held on $1 million bail and Mcinnis on $50,000 bail, according to sheriff's online booking records.

No details have been disclosed about a possible motivation for the stabbings.

City News Service