Leisure marketing consultant killed by woman who stalked his film director buddy, prosecutors say

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A substantial-profile amusement advertising specialist was focused by a girl who experienced been stalking and threatening a film director mate of his right before she fatally shot him right after her forcing her way inside of his Los Angeles house, according to prosecutors and courtroom documents obtained Thursday.

This week’s slaying of Michael Latt sent shockwaves by way of Hollywood as the suspect faces charges of murder and burglary. Latt, 33, had labored on initiatives with filmmakers such as Ryan Coogler and Ava DuVernay, as perfectly as rap artist Popular.

He was pronounced lifeless Monday at a clinic. Prosecutors allege that Jameelah Elena Michl, 36, knocked on his home’s doorway and compelled herself inside the moment it was open up.

She experienced sought out Latt’s household “after she qualified him for remaining good friends with a woman she had been stalking,” the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office environment mentioned in a news launch Thursday. She allegedly fired at him with a semi-automated handgun.

The suspect formerly experienced a restraining purchase filed from her by a buddy of Latt’s, film director A.V. Rockwell, who explained in court docket filings that Michl labored as an more in one of her movies, “A Thousand And A person.” Soon after creation concluded, Michl started to stalk Rockwell, the director claimed in a June application for the order.

Rockwell explained soon after she did not react to Michl’s overtures for a private romance, the woman hand-delivered alarming letters to the director’s property threatening self-damage.

“My Glock is loaded as I generate this,” Michl wrote in 1 letter, according to the court filings. “One pull of the result in and I’ll be totally free.”

Rockwell was not at Latt’s household when he was shot, authorities stated.

Michl’s arraignment in the killing was ongoing to Dec. 15, so she has not still entered a plea, and prosecutors are seeking $3 million bail. If convicted, she could confront a sentence of everyday living in jail. Michl will be represented by a public defender, even though 1 had not however been assigned to her scenario, the community defender’s office claimed.

Detectives seized Michl’s car, which she experienced been residing in, as evidence. She stayed at the scene and was taken into custody.

In January, Latt and Rockwell both of those attended the Sundance Film Competition, in which Rockwell’s film won the Grand Jury Prize. Latt posted a image with Rockwell on Instagram with the caption, “Congratulations to @AVRockwell on your unbelievable feature film directorial debut, A Thousand and One.”

Michl sent “at least 5 exceptionally prolonged and threatening email messages and text messages,” consistently referred to as Rockwell’s mobile cellular phone and approached the director at general public events, the documents exhibit.

“As you continue to bask in the glory of ‘A Thousand and A single,’ l want you to bear in mind, and not forget about all the hell that men and women went via to help carry your masterpiece to the display screen,” Michl wrote in an April 29 e-mail.

On Could 3, Michl wrote again, threatening suicide.

“I’m getting my Glock into Griffith Park and not coming out,” she wrote in an e-mail.

Rockwell obtained the restraining purchase reissued on quite a few situations, according to court files. A consultant for Rockwell did not promptly reply to an electronic mail Thursday trying to find comment from the director.

Latt’s internet marketing firm, Direct with Adore, focused on social affect, and he was encouraged to start out the business enterprise following working on Coogler’s movie “Fruitvale Station,” about the 2009 deadly law enforcement capturing of Oscar Grant in Oakland, California, that starred Michael B. Jordan, and needed to immediate his initiatives toward social justice actions.

He was born into a exhibit company relatives: His mom, Michelle Satter, is one of the founding directors of the Sundance Institute’s artists programs, exactly where she has assisted filmmakers these as Coogler and Quentin Tarantino early in their occupations. His father, David Latt, is a movie producer, and his brother is an agent.

Latt had also worked at the Sundance Institute, which issued a statement on behalf of his family members.

“He focused his career to serving other people, employing storytelling, art, and several mediums to develop enduring alter and galvanizing communities with hope, really like, and inspiration,” the assertion stated. “Michael will by no means be forgotten and his legacy and operate will have on by way of his relatives, his close friends, and his colleagues.”

Latt also worked with Common, on the Oscars marketing campaign for the song “Letter to the Totally free,” and with DuVernay. Collectively, they launched a live performance jail tour and aided designed Common’s nonprofit Picture Justice.

“The instant I recognized that I could use my ability established for social great, I determined to dedicate the rest of my career to assisting other individuals, empowering storytellers of coloration, and preventing injustice wherever it stands,” Latt instructed Forbes in 2019. “Through stories and art, we can showcase incarcerated and previously incarcerated adult males and women’s humanity, shine a light on injustices in the system and shift the narrative about how we chat about the problems.”

Rockwell’s film “ A Thousand and One particular,” starring Teyana Taylor as a single mother, received a Gotham Award on Monday night time for breakthrough director.

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Connected Push Movie Author Lindsey Bahr contributed.

Stefanie Dazio And Christopher Weber, The Involved Press