HEARING BEGINS IN 2000 SLAYING IRAQ WAR VET ACCUSED IN DEATH OF A.V. WOMAN.Byline: KAREN MAESHIRO Staff Writer LANCASTER -- Testimony began Monday in the preliminary hearing for a former security guard charged in the 2000 murder of a Palmdale teenager at a Park and Ride lot he was patrolling. Raymond Lee Jennings, a 32-year-old Iraq war Iraq War: see under Persian Gulf Wars. Iraq War or Second Persian Gulf War Brief conflict in 2003 between Iraq and a combined force of troops largely from the U.S. and Great Britain; and a subsequent U.S. veteran who was arrested about a month after he returned home on leave, is charged in the Feb. 22, 2000, slaying of 18-year-old Michelle O'Keefe. O'Keefe was found shot to death behind the wheel of her blue 2000 Ford Mustang For other Ford Mustang models and concepts, see . The Ford Mustang is an automobile produced by the Ford Motor Company, originally based on the Ford Falcon compact.[1] in the Park and Ride lot on Avenue S in Palmdale. Prosecutors said they would present witnesses to describe events leading up to the killing and the aftermath in what they called a ``heavily circumstantial EVIDENCE, CIRCUMSTANTIAL. The proof of facts which usually attend other facts sought to be, proved; that which is not direct evidence. For example, when a witness testifies that a man was stabbed with a knife, and that a piece of the blade was found in the wound, and it is found to fit case.'' ``Over six years ago an 18-year-old coed named Michelle O'Keefe was brutally murdered,'' Deputy District Attorney Michael Blake said. ``She was shot three times in the face and once in the chest by an assailant who tracked the movement of her car into a planter planter, farm or garden implement that places propagating material such as seeds or seedlings into the ground, usually in rows. Broadcasting, i.e., scattering seed in all directions, by hand followed by harrowing (see harrow) to cover the seed with soil was an early .'' O'Keefe had returned to her car after leaving it at the lot while she rode with a friend to work as an extra during the taping of a music video for rapper Kid Rock. The friend, Jennifer Peterson, who had dropped her off, testified that she left the parking lot after O'Keefe got into her car, shut the door and turned on her engine and headlights. ``I left when she was safely in her car,'' Peterson said. ``It was usually our practice to follow each other onto the freeway but she was going in the other direction to Palmdale High School div style="float:right; margin: 0 0 1em 2em; width: 20em; text-align: right; font-size: 0.86em; font-family: lucida grande, sans-serif; line-height: normal;"> '''Palmdale High School .'' With its engine running and the driver's door opened, O'Keefe's car had backed out of a parking space and rolled over the edge of a small concrete planter. In interviews with investigators, Jennings, working for a private security company under contract with the city, has denied killing her. He told investigators he heard gunfire and watched the Mustang mustang [Sp. mesteño=a stray], small feral horse of the W United States. Mustangs are descended from escaped Native American horses, which in turn were descended from horses of North African blood, brought to the New World by the Spanish c.1500. roll backward but didn't see the killer because his view was blocked by a parked van. Jennings said he called a supervisor and waited for her to arrive before approaching the car. Jennings was named in a wrongful-death lawsuit filed in December 2000 by O'Keefe's parents but was not criminally charged until prosecutors filed the case Nov. 15, about two days before Jennings, a sergeant in the Army National Guard, returned home on leave. He was arrested Dec. 13 when deputies stopped his vehicle on a Lancaster street. Prosecutors in the past declined to file criminal charges, citing insufficient evidence insufficient evidence n. a finding (decision) by a trial judge or an appeals court that the prosecution in a criminal case or a plaintiff in a lawsuit has not proved the case because the attorney did not present enough convincing evidence. , but said after charges were filed that proceedings in the civil case changed the ``character of the evidence.'' The gun that killed O'Keefe has never been found. In May 2002, members of a local scuba diving scuba diving Swimming done underwater with a self-contained underwater-breathing apparatus (scuba), as opposed to skin diving, which requires only a snorkel, goggles, and flippers. Scuba gear was invented by Jacques-Yves Cousteau and Émile Gagnan in 1943. club combed comb n. 1. a. A thin toothed strip, as of plastic, used to smooth, arrange, or fasten the hair. b. An implement, such as a card for dressing and cleansing wool or other fiber, that resembles a hair comb in shape or the murky bottom of nearby Palmdale Lake but turned up nothing. The hearing is expected to resume today. karen.maeshiro(at)dailynews.com (661) 267-5744 |
|
||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion