A former Inglewood instructor has been convicted of murdering one lady and kidnapping, then sexually assaulting, one other almost 20 years in the past, prosecutors mentioned.
Charles Wright, 58, is anticipated to be sentenced to 50 years to life in state jail, in response to the Los Angeles County district legal professional’s workplace.
“I’m happy that at the present time has lastly come for the victims of this horrendous crime,” Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. George Gascón mentioned in a assertion. “It’s notably egregious that these crimes had been dedicated by somebody who was ready of belief and authority. This conviction sends a transparent message that we are going to not tolerate violence in our neighborhood.”
Wright, then a center college instructor within the Inglewood Unified Faculty District, was arrested in early 2022 after DNA and fingerprint proof linked him to the killing of Pertina Epps. The 21-year-old was discovered strangled in a carport in Gardena on the afternoon of April 26, 2005.
Her killing remained unsolved for years, till murder investigators with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Division reviewed the case in 2021 and resubmitted a few of the proof for forensic testing.
When the newer know-how got here again with a match to Wright, the Sheriff’s Division received a warrant to arrest the Hawthorne man.
Afterward, Wright denied any involvement, telling The Instances in 2022 that his fingerprints had been solely on the girl’s purse as a result of he’d been promoting purses and different garments from the trunk of his automobile.
“I didn’t do that,” he mentioned, with out explaining the DNA allegations. He mentioned he had resigned from his educating job to struggle the case.
By the point his case went to trial, Wright was additionally dealing with prices within the 2006 kidnapping and sexual assault of an 18-year-old lady whom the district legal professional’s workplace didn’t determine in an announcement Friday.
On Wednesday, he was convicted of first-degree homicide, kidnapping for oral copulation and compelled oral copulation, prosecutors mentioned. His sentencing is scheduled for Sept. 10.
