NORWALK - A South Whittier man was convicted today of first-
degree murder for killing one of his girlfriends in November
2003 and murdering three other people about 2 1/2 months later
in what a prosecutor called a case of "pure and simple greed."

The Norwalk Superior Court jury deliberated about a day before
finding Cimarron Bernard Bell, 36, guilty of the Nov. 11, 2003,
shooting death of Ineka Edmondson, and the Jan. 27, 2004,
shooting deaths of Mario Larios, Edgar Valles and Fernando Pina.

The jury also found true the special circumstance allegations of
multiple murders, murder for financial gain and murder while
lying in wait.

Jurors will return to court next Monday for the start of the
trial's penalty phase, in which they will be asked to recommend
whether Bell should be sentenced to death or life in prison
without the possibility of parole.

Co-defendant Briaell Lee, 28, is charged with the slayings of
the three men and is awaiting trial in a case in which he could
also face a death sentence.

Deputy District Attorney Todd Hicks told Bell's jury that
Edmondson -- whom Bell had dated -- was involved with him in a
check-cashing scheme in which "something went wrong."

The 22-year-old Compton woman was shot three times in the head
in her black Toyota Corolla, which was found in a mostly
industrial area of La Habra.

The prosecutor said Bell blamed Edmondson for a series of events
in which one of his associates was arrested and the checking
accounts were frozen.

"He accused her of skimming money from these accounts or
outright stealing money from him," Hicks said, telling jurors
that the married father of a young son told another girlfriend
that Edmondson had to go.

Bell later put his 2001 Chevrolet Monte Carlo up for sale as his
bills mounted, but told his confidante that he had no intention
of selling the car and planned instead to attract an
unsuspecting buyer, who would be killed after he got the cash,
the prosecutor said.

Larios, Valles and Pina met Bell on Jan. 27, 2004, at a gas
station near the Norwalk courthouse, but Bell said he did not
want to conduct the $8,500 cash transaction in public and told
them to follow his "modified, tricked- out" Monte Carlo to his
home, Hicks told jurors.

"What they don't know is what's waiting for them when they get
to the house in Whittier," the prosecutor said, telling jurors
that Lee was waiting at the home.

"This is going to be an ambush," Hicks said, noting that the
three men weren't discovered until three days later when their
bodies were found -- with their pockets turned inside out -- in
the rear passenger area and the trunk of Larios' leased white
Mercedes-Benz at a strip mall in La Mirada.

All three men were shot in the head and two of them were wrapped
in plastic.

The murders went unsolved until Bell's other girlfriend was
arrested in a credit card fraud case in February 2004 and told
authorities that he had given her details about the four
killings and even taken her to the scene where Edmondson had
been shot, Hicks said.

One of Bell's attorneys, Harriet Hawkins, called question to the
account of Bell's former girlfriend, noting that she did not
come forward until after she was arrested.

The woman had accompanied Bell to the police station when he was
questioned about Edmondson's death and "never gave any
indication to them that Mr. Bell was the person who killed Ms.
Edmondson," Hawkins told jurors.

She urged jurors to "pay close attention" to the testimony of
the woman, who she said had continued her relationship with Bell
after the killings and even visited his wife in the hospital.

"The question will be who committed the crime," she said.

Hawkins said Bell "was involved in many money-making schemes"
and had bought and sold cars before he placed the advertisement
to sell the Monte Carlo.