CA - Leah Benjamin, 38, raped & murdered, Los Angeles, 10 April 2004 *Arrest*

The California Department of Justice recently informed the Los Angeles Police Department it got a match between Turner's DNA profile and the DNA profile obtained from an alley in the 10600 block of South Manhattan Place on April 10, 2004, when the body of 38-year-old Leah Deshay Benjamin was found wrapped in a blanket.

Investigators at the time determined Benjamin had been raped and murdered via blunt force trauma to the head. Following the DNA match, homicide detectives learned that Turner had lived close to where Benjamin's body was discovered, according to the LAPD.

He pleaded not guilty at arraignment to one count each of murder and rape, and a special circumstances allegation of murder during the commission of a rape could have Turner facing the death penalty, although LA prosecutors have not yet decided whether to seek it.

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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 Friday, May 19, 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.

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