Naked Man Man Accused In Double Slaying Makes 1st Appearance In Court
COMPTON (CBS) — Virgil Tyrone Tate, the naked man accused of fatally stabbing his girlfriend and her mother and wounding a male roommate inside a Carson-area condominium they all shared, made his first court appearance Wednesday.
His arraignment was postponed to Feb. 28.
Tate was charged Tuesday with two counts of murder for the slayings of his girlfriend, Tracie Brooks, 32, and her mother, Carol Susan Brooks, 58, on Sunday night.
Tate was also charged with one count of attempted murder involving a male roommate, who suffered several stab wounds in the attack that occurred on the defendant's 31st birthday.
The murder charges include the special circumstance allegations of multiple murders. Prosecutors will decide later in the case whether to seek the death penalty.
Tate -- who is jailed without bail -- was arrested after a brief standoff with sheriff's deputies.
Deputies were called to the complex in the 21800 block of South Vermont Avenue in an unincorporated area near Harbor-UCLA Medical Center at 8:23 p.m. Sunday, said sheriff's homicide Lt. Holly Francisco.
"The wounded man came running out as deputies arrived and gave them information about where the suspect was," Francisco said. The man did not know whether the women were dead, so deputies immediately entered the residence.
"The first deputies found one female victim dead with several stab wounds and the suspect locked in a back bedroom," she said.
The suspect had put large items behind the bedroom door to block entry, so deputies called in the SWAT team, Francisco said.
SWAT deputies burst into the back bedroom around 9 p.m. and found the older woman dead with multiple stab wounds, she said, adding that the suspect was naked and taken into custody without incident.
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