Crime & Safety
Accused Killer Arrested in Palm Desert
Candace Duran was arrested on a bench warrant after failing to appear in a hearing for her murder case.
A Palm Springs woman charged in a fatal stabbing was due in court today after being arrested in Palm Desert on a warrant for failing to appear in court earlier last month in her murder case, in which she had been free on a $1 million bond.
Candace Rochelle Duran, 24, was arrested with two men Tuesday at
Monterey Avenue and San Gorgonio Way, said Palm Springs police Sgt. Mike Kovaleff.
A trial-readiness conference and warrant arraignments are scheduled for
Duran this afternoon at the Larson Justice Center in Indio.
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Kovaleff said detectives had recognized two of the three in the parking
lot of a nearby shopping center and did a traffic stop on their vehicle on
Tuesday. The men were also arrested on felony warrants, he said.
Duran was the subject of a $1.5 million bench warrant related to a 2007
Palm Springs murder case in which she is awaiting trial. Riverside County
Superior Court Judge John J. Ryan issued the warrant when Duran did not show up for a July 13 trial-readiness conference, according to court records.
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She is accused of stabbing Howard Villanueva to death on Sept. 23, 2007,
when the 40-year-old plumber made a work call at her home in the 29000 bock
of Biskra Road in Palm Springs.
Duran was booked at the county jail in Indio and was being held without
bail. She was also named in a felony warrant related to a robbery that occurred
in Cathedral City in June, Kovaleff said. She has been charged in separate
cases with receiving stolen property, possession of a controlled substance and
other felonies and misdemeanors, according to court records.
