"A decades-old L.A. County homicide case has been cracked open after DNA evidence linked a 63-year-old man to the fatal stabbing of a young woman found in a drainage ditch. Prosecutors say Brian Walton of Los Angeles was a stranger to Claudia Guevara, but he's accused of killing the woman, then 23. On Feb. 21, 1996, Guevara's nude body was found in a ditch next to Encanto Parkway in Azusa. She had been sexually assaulted and stabbed in the neck."
"The victim's family has waited for an agonizing 30 years to get that call to let them know their loved-one's killer had been found and charged, While this was classified as a cold case, investigators and prosecutors never stopped in their relentless pursuit of justice, reaffirming our commitment to holding people accountable for the crimes they are accused of committing."
DNA evidence linked a 63-year-old man to the 1996 murder of 23-year-old Claudia Guevara, whose nude body was found Feb. 21, 1996, in a drainage ditch next to Encanto Parkway in Azusa. Guevara had been sexually assaulted and stabbed in the neck. Her brother had reported her missing a day earlier, and she was last seen when two co-workers dropped her at a bus stop in El Monte. Brian Walton of Los Angeles has been charged with murder with special circumstance allegations of rape and sodomy. He was arraigned in downtown Los Angeles and the sheriff's Homicide Bureau investigation continues. If convicted, Walton faces life without parole or the death penalty. The victim's family waited 30 years to be notified that the killer had been found and charged.
Read at Los Angeles Times
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