An ex-con accused in the shooting deaths of three homeless men in Los Angeles and the follow-home robbery and killing of an L.A. County employee in San Dimas during a four-day crime spree in 2023 pleaded not guilty Wednesday to charges included in a newly unsealed indictment.
The indictment, dated May 28, was unsealed Wednesday, one day after Jerrid Joseph Powell, 36, was found mentally competent to stand trial in the case. The indictment mirrors the charges that were previously filed against him and allows the case to move more quickly to a trial without need for a preliminary hearing.
Powell is facing four counts of murder and one count each of residential robbery and being a felon carrying a concealed firearm. The murder charges include the special circumstance allegations of multiple murders and murder during the commission of a robbery — the latter involving the Nov. 28, 2023, killing of county employee Nicholas Simbolon…