Court briefs

An airline ticket agent is currently on trial for allegedly embezzling $440,000 from China Airlines by selling flights but not forwarding payment to the company.

Jai Verma, 49, is charged with attempted grand theft and taking property exceeding $150,000 in the commission of a felony.

Verma, according to the District Attorney’s Office, sold airline tickets between October 2001 and March 2003 but failed to give the money to China Airlines.

Jury selection is finished and testimony is expected to finish out the week.

Verma remains free from custody on $50,000 bail.

Prison time for man with steak knife

A 19-year-old Sureño gang member on probation was sentenced to 16 months in prison for carrying a hidden steak knife and reportedly planning to attack the person who stabbed him two weeks earlier.

Jose Arias received the low term with credit for 206 days against the sentence. Judge Beth Freeman found him guilty in March after Arias waived his right to a jury trial.

According to the District Attorney’s Office, Arias’ mother called police because she was unable to convince him not to retaliate against the person who attacked him. The Sheriff’s Office reported finding him several blocks away from the home with a steak knife tucked inside the sleeve of his sweatshirt.

Jury questionnaire in works for body-in-barrel case

Attorneys in the murder trial of Bobby Tran, accused of shooting and dismembering a 22-year-old woman in 1999, began the first day of motions Thursday haggling over the questionnaire to be used in jury selection.

Hardship jury selection is expected to start at the end of next week with general questioning on Monday, June 12. Attorneys use the questionnaire to weed out potential jurors who may have preconceived notions of the case, the law or who have been influenced by media attention given to the gruesome murder case.

Tran, 31, is accused of killing Xiu "Erica” Jiang after the two had a dispute involving a marriage that he supposedly arranged between Jiang and another man for U.S. citizenship. The San Francisco woman was reported missing Jan. 14, 1999 and her decomposed body parts found in June 2002. The bagged remains were sprinkled with cat litter and placed in a drum inside a Shurgard Storage Inc. locker in Daly City. An autopsy later showed Jiang died from a gunshot wound before being sliced apart with a saw.

The storage locker was rented in Tran’s name but auctioned off after he failed to pay rent. The new owners contacted police after noticing a bad odor from the drum and Jiang was discovered.

Alleged Redwood City bar shooter to appear in court

One of two men charged with murder in connection with a triple-fatal shooting at a Redwood City bar on April 15 is expected to enter a plea in San Mateo County Superior Court Friday.

Rolando Fernandez, a 26-year-old San Jose resident, is charged with three counts of murder, three counts of attempted murder and the special circumstance that he committed multiple murders during the shooting at the Headquarters Bar at 895 Second Ave.

He is eligible for either the death penalty or life in prison without the possibility of parole, San Mateo County Chief Deputy District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe said.

The April 15 shooting resulted in the injury of three men and the deaths of East Palo Alto resident Hemerenciano Mendoza, 38, and Redwood City residents Humberto Calderon Jr., 18, and Jesus Hernandez, 28.

A second suspect, 18-year-old Domingo Samuel Naranjo, is charged with one count of murder in connection with the shooting. He is scheduled to appear in court for further arraignment on June 20 at 1:30 p.m.<