This newsletter was emailed to subscribers on October 31, 2026.
Welcome to L.A. TACO’s weekly Investigations Newsletter, I’m Lexis-Olivier Ray, the Head of Investigations for L.A. TACO. Thank you for subscribing!
WHAT IS THE POINT?
Michael Payton didn’t know the details of how his close friend, Gianni Washington-Parker, was killed when I first reached out to him and asked if he’d be interested in speaking with me for a story.
“Yes I would,” Payton responded. “I don’t know who killed him but I’m praying for justice for my brother.”
Payton knew Washington-Parker as a star athlete and a talented music producer who also struggled with mental health issues. The two friends went to Valley College in Van Nuys together around 2011.
“He would contact me occasionally, but his mental health was deteriorating,” Payton told me in September. “I think it took a turn about 2017.”
In 2023, Gianni Washington-Parker was fatally shot by 18-year-old Andrew Valdez, a hotheaded teen who went on a seven-month-long crime spree that culminated with him murdering Washington-Parker over a pack of Swisher Sweets and some spare change.
Payton had heard from Washington-Parker’s sister that he was shot, but he didn’t know the details of the shooting.
This wasn’t the first time I found myself in the position of having to break some bad news to a source.
Last year, I received an unexpected DM on Instagram from a stranger named Susan who’d spent years looking for an old friend from Baltimore named Nafeesa Ansar. She hoped I might be able to help her to get in contact with Ansar
“I know this is a long shot, but you wrote an article a few years back . . . my friend, Nafeesa Ansar, was interviewed,” Susan wrote to me.
At the time that I met Nafeesa, she was living in a tent on Alvarado Boulevard under the 101 Freeway, on the border of Filipinotown. I had just begun my career as a freelance journalist.
“If you happen to ever see her again, please tell her I am looking for her,” Susan wrote to me.
My first instinct was to search for Nafeesa’s name in a public database of fatalities maintained by the L.A. County Medical Examiner
“Susan, I hate to be the person to break this news to you,” I wrote Susan. “But Nafeesa passed away in May of 2022 . . .”
She responded by sending me a broken heart emoji.
“Thank you for letting me know and for sharing this information,” Susan wrote.
Michael Payton, Gianni Washington-Parker’s friend, was also grateful that I was able to answer questions that he had wondered about for years.
I had a similar experience with another friend of Washington-Parker’s, who unfortunately, found out that Gianni was murdered by watching an Instagram video that I made.
“I'm watching the video trying to understand the story, then my brother [Gianni] is mentioned, unexpectedly,” the man wrote in a comment under my video. “Man, this opened up some wounds I've tried to patch up. R. I. P. Gianni.”
I immediately sent them a DM.
“I appreciate you reaching out,” they wrote back.
Like Payton, they were aware that Gianni struggled with mental health issues and had died. But they were never able to confirm how he passed. They thanked me after I pointed them in the direction of the court documents I used to figure out how Washington-Parker was murdered.
Gianni Washington-Parker’s story has sort of haunted me ever since we published it in late-September. I’ve worked on a lot of challenging and very sad stories, but this story is especially bleak. It’s made me ask myself repeatedly: what is the point of telling stories like this? Especially at a time when readership is at an all time low.
As an investigative reporter, I strive to have an impact. In the past, my reporting has resulted in problematic cops being fired, the city investing millions of dollars into public infrastructure, and more attention going to the cases of people who may have been wrongfully convicted.
Results like that make the challenging work worth it. But victories in this line of work are rare. And it often takes months, if not years, for a story to have an impact. Which leaves a lot of time to wonder: what is the point?
Over the years, I’ve learned that the impact of a story isn’t always obvious. Sometimes the impact is as simple as giving someone a platform to tell their story or providing closure for someone.
When I explained to Michael Payton that his friend Gianni was murdered over a pack of cigars, he was floored.
“That’s insane,” he responded.
He was curious how I discovered what happened and what the shooter, Andrew Valdez, was ultimately sentenced to.
“25-to-life in prison with the possibility of parole,” I told him.
“Thank goodness,” he responded. “Thank you for the closure brother.”
FROM MY ARCHIVE
Transitioning from pavement to bone-dry gravel on my bike at 25+ MPH (allegedly), in the hills of Elysian Park, on a recent afternoon.
DEAL OR NO DEAL?
Ivan Ehlers for L.A. TACO.
I was back at the Clara Shortridge Foltz Courthouse bright and early yesterday to cover the second day of Luis Miguel Salinas’ pre-evidentiary hearing. The hearing began with the District Attorney’s Office and Luis’ attorneys from The Innocence Center discussing the possibility of Luis taking a plea deal to resolve his case.
Luis has told me multiple times—including after last week’s pre-evidentiary hearing—that he’s only interested in exoneration.
But on Friday, it appeared that he might be having second thoughts.
After the D.A.’s office indicated that they’d likely accept a deal that the judge indicated would result in Luis being released on parole, Luis met privately with his attorneys during the hour and half lunch break to discuss the proposal.
When everyone returned to the courtroom, Luis’ attorneys and the attorney representing the D.A.’s office had a lengthy sidebar with Judge Karla Kerlin. Watching the attorneys and judge talk from the audience, it was clear to me that Luis needed more time to make a decision.
The hearing ended with testimony from Beatrize Fabella, an alibi witness for the defense who testified that she and Luis were in his car on Witmer Street when they heard multiple gunshots go off.
During cross-examination, an attorney for the D.A.’s office questioned Fabella’s account of what happened on the night of the January 2005 shooting. Fabella testified that she didn’t remember what day of the week or what time the shooting happened; she didn’t recall what Luis was wearing that night, what kind of car he drove, or where she lived at the time. The attorney representing the D.A.’s office also interrogated Fabella about why she didn’t come forward earlier.
When asked by Luis’ attorney during re-direct examination to clarify why she didn’t come forward earlier, Fabella stated, “I was dating another person, and I was too busy with that.”
“Nobody came to ask me, like directly,” she added. “So I just . . . I don't know why I didn't. But I’m here today.”
“Why are you here today?” Luis' attorney, Claudia Salinas, asked.
“Because I know Luis is innocent.”
Luis’ next court date is scheduled for December 18.
DHS DATA LEAK
L.A. TACO’s investigative intern Jaylyn Preslicka and I overcame a mysterious Wi-Fi connection problem at L.A. TACO headquarters to become one of the first publications to report a massive data leak that exposed over 40,000 DHS employees' names, job titles, emails, and cell phone numbers. The list of employees exposed in the leak includes agents who reportedly work undercover.
You can read the full story here.
