Featured Articles from the Huntington Beach Independent

A Huntington Beach man was sentenced Friday to 10 months in jail and three years of informal probation after pleading guilty to punching and killing a 24-year-old bar patron, according to the Orange County district attorney's office. Oscar Raul Medina-Perez, 24, is expected to be deported to Mexico by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement once he completes his jail sentence. He pleaded guilty to felony involuntary manslaughter. Medina-Perez punched Leovardo Vera Bustos after getting into a verbal argument with him while both were standing in front of La Barca Night Club in Stanton on the night of July 5, prosecutors said.

The teenager charged with fatally stabbing a 19-year-old man at a Huntington Beach park pleaded not guilty last week. Jesse Shockey, 16, of Garden Grove is scheduled for a preliminary hearing March 2 at the Central Justice Center in Santa Ana. He is charged with one felony count of murder and a sentencing enhancement for the personal use of a deadly weapon. If convicted, he faces a maximum sentence of 26 years to life in state prison. Shockey is accused of getting into an argument in Lark View Park with the friends of Dylan James Austin about two weeks before the Dec. 21 killing, according to the Orange County district attorney's office.

Planning Commissioner Mark Bixby cast a vote Tuesday on the permit and environmental report for the Huntington Beach Senior Center, after learning through the city attorney that his vote might be challenged by some in the community. Bixby was not advised by the attorney not to vote on the matter. He was only told that some in the community had concerns that he may be biased about the subject. The commission voted 4-3 to approve an environmental impact report and a conditional-use permit for the center.

Bella Terra Mall is set to start its official grand opening with a slew of activities Sept. 8 to Sept. 10. Miss Huntington Beach, Summer Maue; Greg Townsend, formerly of the Oakland Raiders; and local author Chris Epting will participate in the Sept. 9 celebrations. Here's a look at some of the musical acts and activities during the weekend celebrations. For more information or to buy tickets, visit bellaterra-hb.com . Sept. 8 A Taste of Bella Terra 3 p.m. to 8 p.m . The taste fest will feature surfboard-shaping demonstrations, an exhibit from the International Surfing Museum, a sand sculpture of Poseidon, and caricature and face-painting artists.

Mike Sciacca Pauline Menczer is a fighter. The 33-year-old Australian has won the last two U.S. Open women's events and will be out to capture an unprecedented third title in the 2003 competition. But it won't be easy for Menczer, who will be challenged by a field that includes eight of the top 16 and 24 of the top 50 women on the qualifying series. "She's great out there," said Palos Verdes' Holly Beck, who will be out to unseat Menczer.

Here we are going into event No. 5 out of 10 on the ASP World Tour, with Jordy Smith winning event No. 4 for his first world tour victory. This after Kelly Slater had gone on a mini two-event hot streak of his own, winning one and placing second before a shocking Round 3 defeat at the hands of local and wild-card entry Sean Holmes at the Billabong Pro in South Africa and placing equal 17th. The defeat for Slater was so bad that Smith, who went on to win the event, also overtook Slater as the No. 1-ranked surfer in the world.

A new developer has taken over Pacific City, the long-delayed project that seeks to bring a hotel, condominiums and businesses to an approximately 30-acre parcel near by downtown Huntington Beach. Crescent Heights, a Florida-based company that has overseen residences, hotels, office space and rental properties nationwide, took the helm of the project about three months ago from San Francisco-based Farallon Capital Management, according to spokesman Steve Afriat. Afriat said Crescent Heights, one of the partners in an entity called 21002 HB, LLC, is running numbers on the project and determining if it wants to make changes to the original proposal.

Deepa Bharath COSTA MESA -- Police say they have received several anonymous leads but have still not been able to arrest a teenager suspected of bludgeoning a 16-year-old Costa Mesa girl who was found dead in Fairview Park on Sept. 21. Victor Garcia, 17, of Costa Mesa has eluded police for more than a week. Ceceline Godsoe was found lying fully clothed on a brush-covered trail in the early hours of Sept. 21. Police say she died of blunt force trauma and that she had met Garcia the evening of Sept.

I enjoyed reading your article "Movie experience still worthwhile" (City Lights, Jan. 5) and also the editorial "Big-screen blues" in the Los Angeles Times. One thing I would like to add as a reason movie attendance might be shrinking is that, like a lot of older people who have hearing problems, I have limited my movie attendance because I just cannot hear the dialogue anymore. With blaring background music and mumbling actors, plus the increase in ticket prices, it just isn't worth it to sit through a movie and not know what is happening.

A helicopter made an emergency landing in the parking lot of Huntington State Beach on Monday morning after the pilot noticed smoke coming out of its electrical equipment. No one was hurt in the landing, authorities said. The Huntington Beach Fire Department responded to the emergency landing at Pacific Coast Highway and Magnolia Street after receiving a call from John Wayne Airport about it, said Deputy Fire Marshal Bob Culhane. Culhane originally said there was only the pilot in the helicopter but later said there were two people on board.

It may be rushing the season a tad, but the "Christmas Belles" are ringing in all their farcical glory at the Westminster Community Theatre. The comedy by Jessie Jones, Nicholas Hope and Jamie Wooten is set in the fictional town of Fayro, Texas, which likely is just two hoots and a holler down the road from Tuna, an equally fictitious abode where the equally satirical "Greater Tuna" played out in the 1980s. And, just as "Greater Tuna" spawned "A Tuna Christmas," the WCT show is a spinoff from an earlier script, "Dearly Beloved," which also played at Westminster two years ago. Several of the actors from that piece return, along with the director, Greg Z. Newcomb, who has his hands full with the episodic craziness (the show has 27 scenes, many abbreviated)

Spring View has cream of the crop Students at Spring View Middle School can thank their 12-year-old classmate Ashley Rapose for the ice cream party that they'll be having on Friday morning. Ashley was a winner in the "I Dream of Ice Cream" contest hosted by the Web site KidsCom.com. The contest, designed to help children get acquainted with each other and to help them make new friends, looked for the student who could come up with the best party name and reason for deserving it. Ashley's theme, Cream "O" Licious Ice Cream, and her assertion that her school deserved the party to recognize all of the hard work that teacher Jessica Clayton does, won ice cream for everyone.

The new line at Affliction Clothing in Seal Beach features the most hopeful of designs for the most devastating of causes. Inside the front entrance of the store at 1799 Apollo Court are mannequins sporting men's and women's versions of a blue T-shirt that features a white heart and the words "Seal Beach - Support In Love. " Affliction has sold about 1,200 of the shirts since they went on sale in late October. But none of the proceeds go to the store. Affliction designed the $20 shirts along with the Seal Beach Police Department, and all money raised goes to the single survivor and the family members of the Oct. 12 Salon Meritage shooting.