Los Angeles police have identified a second suspect in connection with the suffocation slaying of an 80-year-old Mar Vista woman, a crime that occurred 35 years ago this month. Kevin Shanahan has been charged with murder by Los Angeles County prosecutors. He is currently in custody in Olmstead, Minnesota, pending extradition to California.
Police said he was a 15-year high school student when, on Dec. 17, 1975, he and another boy allegedly raped and suffocated Alice Lewis after breaking into her home. Detectives described this as the first multi-defendant case of its kind in the decade-old history of the Los Angeles Police Department's cold-case homicide unit.
In September 2009, police arrested Dennis Vasquez, of Los Angeles, in connection with the case. Vasquez was 16 at the time of the killing. Minors typically are not identified by the court or tried as adults, but because Vasquez was arrested decades after the crime, a judge found he was unfit to be tried as a juvenile. Vasquez had been arrested on an unrelated crime, which led to a swab of his DNA being taken by authorities.
That led to a "cold hit" on a DNA sample from the 1975 crime that had been placed in the state database about seven years ago, according to a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County district attorney's office. Detectives said Vasquez indicated that he may have participated in the burglary with another person. Cold-case detectives identified Shanahan, a convicted bank robber, through fingerprints found at the scene and other investigative work.
If you have been arrested or under investigation for murder, you have the right to speak to your attorney first. You do not need to discuss anything with the police detectives, in fact it is in your best interest not to do so. The best legal defense is started as early as possible and with factors such as evidence collection and how it was handled, all charges could be dropped against you. It is critical to build a strong defense on your behalf, especially if you are not guilty of the charges. You have options, find out what they are by discussing your case with an experienced Los Angeles murder criminal defense lawyer immediately.
Murder is considered the most serious of crimes. Iif you are facing such a charge, contact muder criminal defense lawyers Steve Cron or Philip Israels to discuss the specifics of your murder charges. They have been successfully representing clients for decades, and can do the same for you. Contact Cron, Israels & Stark, Attorneys At Law, to start your defense proceedings immediately