Trial Begins for CA Sex Offender who Killed Four Women:  One of two convicted sex offenders charged with raping and killing four Southern California women while wearing an electronic monitor began his trial on Wednesday.  The AP reports that Steven Dean Gordon, 47, and Franc Cano, 30, who will be tried separately at a later date, have pleaded not guilty to rape and murder with special circumstances.  Both men are registered sex offenders with convictions in separate cases of lewd and lascivious acts on a child.  The men are believed to have known each other since 2010, when they cut off their GPS devices and fled to Alabama, where they were arrested.  Two years later, they cut off their devices again and fled to Las Vegas and were apprehended after two weeks on the run.  In 2013 and 2014, Gordon and Cano randomly targeted, raped and murdered four women, three of whom have never been found.  Gordon confessed to the murders during grand jury proceedings but the judge has excluded it from his trial because Gordon had told police prior to divulging the details of the killings that he didn't want to talk.  Both Gordon and Cano could face the death penalty if convicted.

Cellphones a Continuing Problem in CA Prisons:  The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) has confiscated over 8,000 cellphones from inmates across the state so far this year, highlighting the ongoing problem facing corrections officials in keeping cellphones out of prisons.  Andria Borba and Leslie Donaldson of KPIX 5 report that state inmates have used contraband cellphones to coordinate at least one prison escape, and there are at least 79 documented cases of victim intimidation over Facebook by inmates on cellphones.  To combat the problem, CDCR installed a blocking system called Managed Access in 18 of the 33 state prisons, but it has proven to block and interrupt an average of 150,000 calls and texts of other people in close proximity to the prison, causing concern over its potential to interfere with emergency calls.  Another device about to be installed in every California prison, Cell Sense, consists of a portable tower that has the ability to detect cell phones even if the battery is removed.

Defending Prop 66:  The ACLU has filed suit to halt resumption of executions in California, despite Californians voting in favor of expediting the death penalty process.  Listen to CJLF Legal Director Kent Scheidegger defend Proposition 66 on KFI's John and Ken show.