Hawthorne Man Pleads No Contest To Woman's 2004 Murder

LOS ANGELES, CA — A Hawthorne man linked through DNA evidence to the 2004 killing of a woman in South Los Angeles after his arrest for a fatal hit- and-run in Orange County pleaded no contest Thursday to murder and other charges.

Jaqwun Laerin Turner, 36, was immediately sentenced to 34 years to life in state prison following his plea to first-degree murder, kidnapping and assault with a deadly weapon, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office.

Turner was charged in 2015 with the April 10, 2004, slaying of Leah Deshay Benjamin, whose body was found wrapped in a blanket in an alley in the 10600 block of South Manhattan Place.

The 38-year-old woman died from blunt force head trauma, authorities said.

A background check of Turner revealed he had lived in "close proximity" to the area where Benjamin's body was discovered, according to authorities.

Los Angeles police were notified in 2014 the California Department of Justice had gotten a match between Turner's DNA profile and the DNA profile obtained from crime scene evidence.

Los Angeles Police Department Robbery-Homicide Division detectives and members of the Scientific Investigation Division conducted a search of the location where Turner had once lived, and recovered DNA evidence linked to Benjamin although the property had been sold in 2005, according to police.

Turner's DNA was collected after his arrest by Santa Ana police on Jan. 29, 2014, in the death of Martha Rodenza, 51, of Los Angeles.

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 while he was working as a fuel delivery driver, authorities said.

Rodenza's body was found on the northbound Santa Ana (5) Freeway at the westbound Garden Grove (22) Freeway after she fell from the truck 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.

— City News Service, photo courtesy of the OCDA