Truck Driver Pleads Not Guilty in Cold Case Murder

A man who was linked through DNA evidence to the 2004 rape and murder of a woman in South Los Angeles after being arrested in a fatal hit-and-run in Orange County pleaded not guilty today to charges that could result in the death penalty.

Jaqwun Laerin Turner, 34, of Hawthorne, is charged with one count each of murder and rape in the death of Leah Deshay Benjamin, whose body was discovered wrapped in a blanket in an alley in the 10600 block of South Manhattan Place on April 10, 2004.

The murder charge includes an allegation that the 38-year-old woman -- who died from blunt force head trauma -- was murdered during the commission of a rape.

Prosecutors have yet to decide whether to seek the death penalty against Turner, who is being held without bail. Turner is serving a one-year sentence at the Orange County jail after Martha Rodenza, 51, jumped from his cab to her death on the 5 Freeway.

Rodenza had gotten into a dispute at a family party in Mission Viejo and ended up getting into a petroleum tanker truck driven by Turner after asking for rides at a gas station near Avery Parkway and the Santa Ana (5) Freeway, authorities said. Turner was working as a fuel delivery driver at the time.

Rodenza’s body was found on the northbound Santa Ana (5) Freeway at the westbound Garden Grove (22) Freeway just before 2:45 a.m. on Dec. 8, 2013.

Turner pleaded guilty in August 2014 to a felony hit-and-run charge and was sentenced to a year in county jail and five years probation.

Orange County Deputy District Attorney Stephen Cornwell objected to the plea deal, saying later that Turner should have spent time in prison for leaving Rodenza to die alone in the road and failing to contact police.

Defense attorney Errol Cook, who represented Turner in the Orange County case, said last year that Turner had reluctantly agreed to give Rodenza a ride, and that his client was “shocked, fearful and pretty much panicked” after she opened the door and stepped out of the truck as he was trying to slow the vehicle.

Turner’s DNA was collected after Santa Ana police arrested him on Jan. 29, 2014, in connection with the death of Rodenza, 51.

Los Angeles police were notified that the California Department of Justice had gotten a match between Turner’s DNA profile and the DNA profile obtained from crime scene evidence.

City News Service