Appeals Court Upholds Conviction for 1975 Mar Vista Murder

A state appeals court panel today upheld a Los Angeles man’s conviction for murdering an 80-year-old neighbor inside her Mar Vista home four decades ago, when he was a teenager.

A three-justice panel from California’s 2nd District Court of Appeal rejected Dennis Vasquez’s claim that jurors should have been instructed on the lesser offense of involuntary manslaughter, along with his contention that he received ineffective assistance from his trial attorney, who conceded that he was guilty of second-degree murder.

In a nine-page ruling, the appellate court justices found that there was “overwhelming evidence of first-degree murder.”

Authorities believe Alice Lewis was strangled or smothered during a residential burglary on Dec. 17, 1975. Her body was discovered about 10 the next morning by a nurse who took care of Lewis once a week.

Vasquez was 50 at the time of his September 2009 arrest, which occurred after a DNA hit identified him as a suspect in the Lewis killing.

Vasquez had been required to provide a DNA sample following his April 2009 arrest in an unrelated case, according to Los Angeles police.

At the time of the crime, Vasquez was a week away from turning 17 and lived one street away from the victim.

Vasquez was sentenced in November 2014 to a potential life prison term.

A second man, Kevin Michael Shanahan, now 56, is also charged with Lewis’ murder.

Shanahan, who was also 16 at the time of the crime, was sent to Patton State Hospital after being found incompetent to stand trial. He has since been ruled competent and is due in court Thursday for a pretrial hearing.

City News Service