BRIAN MELLEY
Associated Press
A 42-year-old parolee was charged with killing a man as he camped with his daughters in a Malibu Creek State Park and shooting at 10 other campers and drivers over two years, prosecutors said Monday.
Anthony Rauda was scheduled to be arraigned Monday in Los Angeles County Superior Court on one count of murder, 10 counts of attempted murder and five counts of burglary in connection with a rash of crimes in the Santa Monica Mountains between Malibu and Calabasas. However, the hearing was postponed to Jan. 22.
Rauda was arrested in October after sheriff's deputies spotted him on a ridgetop dressed in black and carrying a rifle in his backpack. They had been searching on foot and by helicopter for an armed burglar who had broken into businesses and homes and stolen food.
Rauda was sent back to jail last month on a probation violation for being a felon with a gun. But the investigation remained open as authorities looked into his possible ties to a series of shootings that spread fear in the area after Tristan Beaudette, 35, was killed June 18 while camping in a tent with his two daughters in Malibu Creek State Park. The girls weren't injured.
The Los Angeles County district attorney charged Rauda with murder in that slaying and with attempted murder in the shooting of a wildlife biologist who was struck in the arm while sleeping in a hammock south of the park in November 2016.
Less than a week after the 2016 shooting, Rauda is accused of opening fire on someone sleeping in a vehicle. He is charged with shooting at three other cars in 2017. Four days before Beaudette was killed, Rauda shot at a Tesla near the park, prosecutors said.
“ A concentrated effort by Detectives to unearth the past activities of Rauda correlating with this investigation, has revealed that he apparently acted alone during this identified crime spree, stretching from November 2016 to October 2018. No similar crimes have been reported in the area since the October 2018, arrest of Rauda,” said the Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department in a statement. “The results of this collaborative effort, illustrate the value and strength of coordinated communication, as well as the cooperation among the multiple agencies and stakeholders that helped end this crime spree.”
It wasn't immediately clear who Rauda's lawyer was to comment on the charges. Rauda remains behind bars. If convicted, he faces up to life in prison.
