Sacto 9-1-1

From Kim Minugh:

Sacramento County sheriff's deputies have arrested 19-year-old Alex Eugene Toliver in connection with the Nov. 1 slaying of 24-year-old Patrick Razaghzadeh. That brings to eight the number of men facing a murder charge for Razaghzadeh's death and five attempted murder charges for the shootings of five of the victim's friends.

Toliver also is the eighth arrest in an effort by sheriff's detectives to knock down what they describe as two small but persistently violent gang subsets from North Highlands: Monk Mobb and TNA. The two groups are part of the larger North Highlands Gangster Crips network, according to detectives.

In the early morning hours of Nov. 1, Razaghzadeh was gunned down in the backyard of his Rogue River Drive home. He had been hosting a Halloween party for friends, detectives allege, when members of the Monk Mobb and TNA crashed the party. Razaghzadeh died at the scene; five of Razaghzadeh's friends also were shot, but survived.

Last week, detectives arrested: Carlos Lavance Allen, 18; Corey Andre Carmicle, 22; Charles Steven Ferrell III, 21; Elijah Rasean Fields, 18; Willie Cavil Harris IV, 19; Willie Earl Toliver Jr., 22; and Jarrell Edward Triplett, 16.

The Bee is naming the defendants who were juveniles at the time the alleged crimes occurred - Allen, Fields and Triplett - because the District Attorney's Office has confirmed that they will be tried as adults.

All of them - including the latest suspect, Alex Toliver - face one count or murder and five counts of attempted murder.

Alex Toliver is Willie Toliver's younger brother, according to detectives.

A ninth suspect also has been arrested in connection with the case: Leighni Nikkol Hadl, 23, faces one count of conspiracy.

In making the arrests, detectives say they are optimistic they have broken the back of the two gang subsets. They allege that many of the suspects in the Razaghzadeh homicide have been recurring problems for detectives, and that their names have come up in several previous investigations.

The gangs have been responsible for at least four homicides, more than a dozen shootings and 70-plus robberies in the last year-and-a-half, detectives allege. In the course of the latest homicide investigation, detectives say they gathered valuable information on other violent and unsolved crimes, and that arrests might follow in those cases, though they declined to provide more details.

For a previous story, click here.