A former Inglewood trainer convicted final month of murdering one girl and kidnapping and sexually assaulting a second one practically 20 years in the past has died in custody whereas awaiting sentencing, in accordance with legislation enforcement data.
Charles Wright, 59, died on Aug. 13, a few month earlier than his scheduled Sept. 10 sentencing for the cold-case crimes, in accordance with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Division.
Lt. Steven De Jong, of the sheriff’s division, stated Wright had been housed on a medical ward since April as a consequence of a medical situation that predated his arrest. De Jong stated jail personnel tried to render support after discovering Wright unresponsive, and that no foul play is suspected.
A listing of in-custody deaths on the sheriff’s web site doesn’t present a explanation for Wright’s demise, saying it’s pending a remaining post-mortem report. The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s web site lists Wright’s explanation for demise as “deferred.”
Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. George Gascón’s workplace didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark Saturday.
Gascón’s workplace stated final month that it anticipated Wright to be sentenced to 50 years to life in state jail for his convictions for first-degree homicide, kidnapping for oral copulation and compelled oral copulation — crimes that Gascón known as “notably egregious” for having been dedicated “by somebody who was able of belief and authority.”
Wright was a center faculty trainer within the Inglewood Unified Faculty District when he was arrested in early 2022 after DNA and fingerprint proof linked him to the killing of Pertina Epps, a 21-year-old who was discovered strangled in a Gardena carport in 2005, prosecutors stated.
Chilly-case investigators had resubmitted the proof from the unsolved killing for contemporary forensic testing in 2021, and arrested Wright, of Hawthorne, when it matched him, investigators stated.
Wright instructed The Occasions in 2022 that he was harmless of the crime, and that his fingerprints had been solely on the lady’s purse as a result of he’d been promoting purses from his automotive. He didn’t clarify the DNA proof.
“I didn’t do that,” he stated.
Wright was subsequently charged within the 2006 kidnapping and sexual assault of an unidentified 18-year-old girl, which he additionally was convicted of final month.
“Fortunately justice delayed was not justice denied,” Gascón stated in a press release following the conviction.
