Appellate court hearing set for ex-security guard convicted of murder
Antelope Valley College student
LOS ANGELES, Calif.—A state appellate court panel is set next month to hear arguments in the case of an ex-security guard convicted of murdering an 18-year-old woman in a Palmdale park-and-ride lot, where he worked more than a decade ago.
On Oct. 27, the three-justice panel from the 2nd District Court of Appeal is set to consider an appeal filed on behalf of Raymond Lee Jennings, who was convicted in December 2009 of second-degree murder for the Feb. 22, 2000, slaying of Antelope Valley College student Michelle O’Keefe.
The Lancaster jury that found Jennings guilty was the third to hear the case against him.
The first two juries to hear the case deadlocked—with the first jury split 9-3 in April 2008 in favor of guilt and the second jury split 11-1 in February 2009, with the majority voting in favor of convicting him. Both of those trials were held in a downtown Los Angeles courtroom.
Jennings served with the National Guard in Iraq after the slaying.
Deputy District Attorney Michael Blake alleged that Jennings murdered O’Keefe when she returned to her bright blue Ford Mustang, which she left at the lot so she could carpool with a friend to a Kid Rock video shoot in Los Angeles, where they worked as paid extras.
“The mistake he made was assuming that she was a prostitute,” Blake told jurors in Jennings’ second trial. “Her fatal mistake in this interaction was standing up for herself.”
Defense attorney M. David Houchin countered during Jennings’ second trial that there was no direct or physical evidence linking his client to the young woman’s slaying.
Jennings was sentenced in February 2010 to 40 years to life in state prison.
LANCASTER, Calif.—A Quartz Hill woman was sentenced today to 25 years to life in prison for the March 2009 death of her 18-month-old daughter, whom she initially claimed was taken from her in a violent kidnapping.
Superior Court Judge Hayden Zacky imposed the term on Stacey Marie Barker, 26, who was convicted May 24 of first-degree murder, assault on a child causing death and child abuse for the March 18, 2009, slaying of her daughter, Emma.
LANCASTER, Calif.—A Quartz Hill woman convicted of murder and other charges in the death of her 18-month-old daughter, whom she initially claimed was taken from her in a violent kidnapping, is facing a 25-year-to-life prison term.
Stacey Marie Barker, now 26, is set to be sentenced June 17 by Superior Court Judge Hayden Zacky for the March 18, 2009, slaying of her daughter, Emma.
PALMDALE, Calif.—A 41-year-old man who was walking in the middle of a street in Palmdale in 38-degree weather early yesterday morning tried to take a gun from a sheriff’s deputy who had stopped to help him and bit off a “significant part” of the deputy’s ear, authorities said.
The bizarre attack occurred at 3:44 a.m. in the 200 block of East Palmdale Boulevard, according to sheriff’s Palmdale Station Detective Mike Baker.
LANCASTER, Calif.—A former Antelope Valley College accounting assistant has been arrested on suspicion of embezzling $500,000.
Mandy Borquez, 33, was charged with six felony counts of grand theft/identity theft after a 10-month investigation by the Commercial Crimes Bureau of the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department, said Sgt. Pauline Panis of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.
The investigation started after “the college reported the embezzlement in 2010 discrepancies in their accounting,” Panis said.
PALMDALE, Calif.—A Palmdale woman and her live-in boyfriend were in custody today on suspicion of the beating death of her 2-year-old son, authorities said.
Jennifer Zolorzano, 19, and Joe Hickman, 21, were both being held in lieu of $1 million bail.
According to the sheriff’s department, the woman took her son to a hospital early Saturday morning for treatment of “head injuries she alleged occurred when the child slipped and fell while taking a bath.”
