Ex-security guard to appeal Palmdale murder conviction
Ex-security guard convicted of murdering an 18- year-old woman in a Palmdale park-and-ride lot
LOS ANGELES (CNS) - 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.
PALMDALE, Calif.—A 51-year-old Antelope Valley man was arrested last night on suspicion of murdering his 41-year-old girlfriend, who was found stabbed to death in her Palmdale home, authorities said this morning.
Kenneth Roger Griffin walked into the Palmdale Sheriff Station to speak to detectives at 7:45 p.m. Monday, when he was arrested, said Deputy Benjamin Grubb of the Los Angeles County sheriff's headquarters bureau.
PALMDALE, Calif. —On Wednesday, Sept. 1 at the home of grandparents Roger “Pudgy” Elliott and his wife Carmen, the family and friends of murder victim Ricky Elliott were supported by local community activists and clergymen to protest the recent violence that has taken the lives of young people within the Antelope Valley.
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.
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.”
