DNA Links Convicted Hit-And-Run Driver To 2004 Murder, Rape In South LA
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — A felon convicted in the hit-and-run death of a woman in Orange County has been linked through DNA evidence to the 2004 rape and murder of a woman in South Los Angeles.
Jaqwun Laerin Turner, 34, of Hawthorne, is charged with one count each of murder and rape in the death of Leah Deshay Benjamin, whose body was discovered wrapped in a blanket in an alley in the 10600 block of South Manhattan Place on April 10, 2004. He is scheduled to be arraigned in Benjamin's murder on July 15.
The murder charge includes an allegation that the 38-year-old woman, who died from blunt force head trauma, was murdered during the commission of a rape. Prosecutors will decide later whether to seek the death penalty against Turner.
Police say a background check of Turner revealed that he had lived in "close proximity" to the area where Benjamin's body was discovered.
The state Department of Justice reported a match between Turner's DNA profile and a DNA profile obtained from crime scene evidence. Turner's DNA was collected after his arrest by Santa Ana police on Jan. 29, 2014 in connection with the death of 51-year-old Martha Rodenza of Los Angeles.
Rodenza had gotten into a dispute at a family party in Mission Viejo and got into a petroleum tanker truck driven by Turner after asking for rides at a gas station near Avery Parkway and the Santa Ana (5) Freeway while he was working as a fuel delivery driver, authorities said.
Rodenza's body was found on the northbound Santa Ana (5) Freeway at the westbound Garden Grove (22) Freeway after she fell from the truck just before 2:45 a.m. on Dec. 8, 2013.
Turner pleaded guilty in August 2014 to a felony hit-and-run charge and was sentenced to a year in county jail and five years probation.
(©2015 CBS Local Media, a division of CBS Radio Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Wire services contributed to this report.)