4 more slayings tied to California serial killer, prosecutor says
STOCKTON, Calif. (AP) – A serial killer suspect has been charged with four more murders, bringing the total to seven deaths in Northern California since April 2021. Prosecutors charged the suspect Tuesday with a seventh murder. Shootings terrorized the Central Valley town of Stockton earlier this year as police searched for a man they said was dressed in black and appeared to be “on a mission” to carry out shootings waiting. He was also connected to violence in Alameda County. Wesley Brownlee was arrested in October when authorities said he was “hunting” in Stockton. Brownlee will appear in court on January 3. His public defender, Allison Nobert, did not immediately return a request for comment.
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STOCKTON, Calif. (AP) – A Northern California man suspected of serial killings has been charged in four more murders this week, bringing the total to seven deaths since April 2021, authorities said.
Shootings terrorized the Central Valley town of Stockton earlier this year as police searched for a man dressed in black who appeared to be “on a mission” as he hunted down victims in ambush-style shootings. He was also connected to violence in Alameda County.
Wesley Brownlee was arrested in October when he was “out hunting” for another possible victim in Stockton, police said at the time. Authorities had said they had linked him to the killing of six men and the wounding of a woman. Prosecutors charged him with a previously undisclosed seventh murder on Tuesday.
Brownlee will appear in court on January 3. His public defender, Allison Nobert, did not immediately return a request for comment.
Brownlee was initially charged only in the deaths of three victims in Stockton: Jonathan Rodriguez Hernandez, 21, who died Aug. 30; Juan Cruz, 52, who died on September 21; and Lawrence Lopez Sr., 54, who died Sept. 27.
The amended complaint, filed Tuesday, also accuses Brownlee of killing Paul Yaw, 35, who died July 8, and Salvador Debudey Jr., 43, who died Aug. 11, in Stockton, as well as shooting firearms in Alameda County. Juan Vasquez Serrano, 39, on April 10, 2021, and Mervin Harmon on April 16, 2021.
He is also charged with attempted murder in the April 16, 2021, killing of Natasha LaTour, 46.
Harmon had not previously been publicly linked to the Brownlee shooting spree.
Additional details about Harmon’s death were not immediately available.
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