Reform may have eased jail time for police slaying suspect
LOS ANGELES — California’s efforts to ease overcrowding in state prisons did not lead to an early release of a gang member accused of killing a police officer and wounding another but may have shortened the amount of time he was locked up for repeated probation violations.
Michael Christopher Mejia, 26, was arrested Monday after police said he killed his cousin, crashed his cousin’s car then fatally shot Whittier police Officer Keith Boyer and wounded Officer Patrick Hazell when they responded to the accident.
Mejia was released from the super-maximum Pelican Bay State Prison in April and placed on probation with county supervision, instead of parole with state supervision, under a reform measure known as Assembly Bill 109 that was enacted by state legislators in 2011.
Since then. Mejia was arrested five times for violating his probation, most recently on Feb. 2, Los Angeles County sheriff’s Lt. John Corina said. In each of those cases, he was held for only 10 days.