Riverside District Attorney's Office Plans Victims' Rights Week Candlelight Vigils

Three candlelight vigils will be held Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday this week to mark Victims' Rights Week in Palm Desert, Temecula and Riverside, according to the District Attorney's Office.

Victims' Rights Week was established in 1981, according to the Department of Justice.

Each year in Riverside County, the District Attorney's Office pays tribute to those who lost their lives to violent crime, a D.A.'s spokesman said.

The vigils are planned to start at 7 p.m. April 24, 25 and 26:

- Tuesday April 24 at the Palm Desert Civic Center Park amphitheatre, 43900 San Pablo St., Palm Desert. The daughter of Sandra Smith, who was murdered in Indio in 2010, is scheduled as keynote speaker. Her husband has been charged with the murder and is awaiting trial.

- Wednesday April 25 at Harveston Village Welcome Center, 40135 Village Road, Temecula. The scheduled keynote speaker is the mother of Robert Golden, who was stabbed to death in 2005 by his girlfriend in their Lake Elsinore home, not long after the two spent Thanksgiving with the murderer's family.

- Thursday April 26 at the Riverside County Historic Courthouse, 4050 Main St., Riverside. Scheduled keynote speakers are the parents of 18-year-old Rachel Elliott, killed by a drunken driver in the Corona area in 2008. Less than a year before she was killed, Rachel was a lead participant in her high school’s Every 15 Minutes program, which is held to bring awareness to the dangers of driving while intoxicated.

District Attorney Paul Zellerbach will address those in attendance at each event, according to the D.A.'s office.

Following the Riverside vigil there will be a dedication at the Victims Memorial Courtyard outside the District Attorney's Office, 3960 Orange St., Riverside. For more information, visit www.RivCoDA.org.