Man pleads not guilty to raping woman near Compton courthouse
Linked through DNA
COMPTON, Calif.—A Palmdale man linked through a DNA database to the rape of a woman in Compton pleaded not guilty to charges that could land him in prison for life.
Paul Lorenzo Madry, 22, is accused of attacking the woman on Nov. 25, 2008, as she walked between the Compton courthouse and a parking structure.
His DNA was entered into a DNA database in July when he was convicted of misdemeanor burglary.
He was arrested by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department after the District Attorney’s Office received a notice of a DNA “hit.”
He was charged with kidnapping to commit another crime, forcible rape and second-degree robbery, and two counts of forcible oral copulation.
The criminal complaint alleges that Madry used a gun during the crime.
Authorities believe Madry lived in Compton when the woman was assaulted, according to the District Attorney’s Office.
He was jailed in lieu of $4.1 million bail and is due back in Compton Superior Court on Dec. 16, when a date is scheduled to be set for a hearing to determine if there is enough evidence to require him to stand trial.
If convicted as charged, he could be sentenced to life in prison, according to the District Attorney’s Office.
Civil rights activists and other community leaders called for hate crime charges on Monday against gang members suspected in attacks on an African American Compton family and threats against other Black residents.
The attacks sparked a rally at Compton City Hall after two men—reportedly from a Latino gang—were arrested for harassing and threatening a family to move out of the neighborhood because of their skin color.
The post office on Willowbrook Avenue in downtown Compton was one of 3,000 across the nation that in August 2011 was put on a list of possible closures, and while the postal service has put the shutdowns on hold for all of 2012, pending action by Congress, local activists continue to have meetings to gather support for keeping the facility open.
According to spokesperson Richard Maher, the postal service lost $15 billion last year (70 percent of which was due to a law Congress passed that accelerated payments to prefunded retirement.)
Bail was set at $3 million for a 15-year-old boy charged as an adult in a June 4 shooting that killed a 14-month-old boy and wounded his father in Watts.
Donald Ray Dokins made his initial court appearance Friday afternoon, but did not enter a plea. His arraignment was postponed to July 16 in Compton Superior Court.
Dokins faces one count of murder stemming from Angel Cortez’s slaying and one count of attempted murder for allegedly shooting the boy’s father, Mauro, in the shoulder.
The coroner’s office has determined that what appeared to be a set of lungs found on a sidewalk Sunday afternoon in the Compton area were from an animal.
A woman walking in an unincorporated area of the county made the discovery Sunday afternoon in the 13100 block of Avalon Boulevard, took a picture of what she found and in the evening contacted the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, said Lt. Jack DeMello of the sheriff’s Century Station. It was the only call the department received about the organs, he said.
Authorities were still seeking the killer of a U.S. Army veteran gunned down while sitting in a car parked in front of his brother’s home in Lancaster.
The man—identified in broadcast reports as 30-year-old Nathen Taylor—was shot about 12:10 a.m. Saturday in the 700 block of West Avenue H-7 and later succumbed at a hospital, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department reported.
