Jeffrey Minifie Charged With Murder: He Allegedly Kidnapped Girlfriend, Killed Her in High-Speed LAPD Pursuit

By Simone Wilson Tue., Feb. 21 2012 at 5:30 PM

Minifie's deadly weapon.

An insane car crash in Westlake last Thursday was overshadowed by two other big L.A. crime stories that day: the guy who shot up a Hollywood apartment before setting it on fire, and the ICE-officer shooting in Long Beach.

But the crimes of alleged kidnapper Jeffrey Minifie, 39, whose passenger died in the heat of an LAPD pursuit ...

... will not go unpunished. The L.A. County District Attorney's Office has charged Minifie with kidnapping and murdering his 36-year-old girlfriend, Lilian Janeth Pleitez -- a mother of two daughters, 7 and 13, and a son, 15.

The D.A. has concluded that Minifie forced Pleitez into his SUV, then led his victim to her grave by driving into oncoming traffic. From the original investigation, via City News Service:

Shortly after 8 a.m. Thursday, someone called 911 to report that a man had grabbed a woman and forced her into a GMC Yukon, [LAPD Commander Andy Smith] said. Officers went to the area, spotted a vehicle matching the description and saw that a woman was inside waving her arms to get their attention, Smith said.

When cops began chasing the SUV eastbound down Sixth Street, Minifie reportedly made a quick U-turn into oncoming traffic -- and traveled west for about a mile before slamming head-on into a Volvo. The crash killed his girlfriend and injured the other driver.

Prosecutors are actually talking death penalty for Minifie's unusual case. Fresh from the D.A.'s office:

Jeffrey Minifie, (dob 10-29-72), was charged in case BA394178 with one count each of special circumstance murder, kidnapping and evading an officer causing injury, said Deputy District Attorney Efrain Aceves with the Family Violence Division. He is being held without bail.
... The special circumstance of murder during a kidnapping makes this a potential death penalty case. Prosecutors will decide later whether to seek the death penalty.

Minifie's arraignment will be announced later. He was not in court today due to medical issues.

Oftentimes when an LAPD pursuit leads to a deadly crash, the public begins to question police tactics. L.A. Times commenter Tom Allen wrote: "There you go: Chase him until he smashes the vehicle and kills the person they are trying to save." The department meanwhile has scarcely commented -- nothing about the dramatic kidnap/murder is posted to the LAPD blog, and their media-relations officers hadn't received any information on the crash late last Thursday night, when we called.

Then again, as we've noted before, it happened to be the scariest day for L.A. crime in recent memory.

[@simone_electra / swilson@laweekly.com / @LAWeeklyNews]

Tags:

Jeffrey Minifie, kidnapping, Lilian Janeth Pleitez, murder, pursuit, Westlake

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Dale Jude

Chief Beck...did he have a Valid Driver's License ??

Jmccullough620

I dated Lilian for four years, and am dumbfounded by this news. Rest In Peace, Lilian.

Jack700

The problem with Los Angeles is that it is CHOCK FULL OF LIBERALS. "If it weren't for the police," yada yada bull shit! Look around you morons! Criminals like OJ and Robert Blake are getting away with murder and they are getting away with it because LIBERALS ARE MORONS! Then to say, "if the police didn't chase." If your purse were stolen (male and female liberals have purses by the way) then you would scream and cry like a little B*tch for them to "DO SOMETHING!" These morons are the reason why crime is through the roof and we have the problems we have today.

Anonymous

So, then don't chase him and let him and the victim get away, so he can do God knows what to her? It's not the lapd's fault she died. It's the suspect's. He initiated the incident, he made the choice to kidnap her and flee, and he is responsible for her death, not the police who were only trying to stop the suspect. Tom Allen's comment is a slippery slope to allow criminals to hide behind their crimes and shift the responsibilty onto the ones who enforce the laws they love to break. Do you want the police to attempt to save the victim of a kidnapping, or merely be an investigative entity that looks into her death after the kidnapper murders her? I'll take the former any day. The fallout is always the suspects fault. Period. The police wouldn't be there if it wasn't for him.