The person who was seen stalking the halls of a Valley Village residence constructing earlier than he allegedly killed a resident in April has been linked to a different brutal slaying from 2022, the place an aged lady’s physique was burned, authorities mentioned.
Erick Escamilla, 27, has been in custody since he was captured in Could and charged with homicide within the killing of Valley Village resident Menashe Hidra inside his fifth-floor residence. On Monday, Los Angeles County prosecutors amended their case towards Escamilla and added a second rely of homicide — for the slaying of Okay Ja Kim in 2022.
“I’ve labored a few years in murder and much more than that investigating violent crime, and I can actually say that in my total profession, I don’t assume I’ve ever seen such a mindless and brutal act of homicide,” Det. Sharon Kim advised reporters in 2022.
Okay Ja Kim, 81, was discovered on the ground of her bed room on Martha Road in Woodland Hills, half hidden beneath her mattress, “semi-charred, unconscious and never respiratory,” in keeping with police. She had been strangled and suffered “sharp and blunt pressure accidents,” police mentioned. The house confirmed “in depth indicators of arson.”
In accordance with the legal criticism filed by prosecutors Monday, Escamilla then stabbed a person about three weeks later throughout an tried theft. Particulars on how investigators linked Escamilla to the crimes weren’t instantly clear.
“It was a group effort,” mentioned LAPD Lt. Man Galon, who oversees the valley murder bureau. He mentioned Det. Sharon Kim, who led the Woodland Hills homicide investigation, “by no means gave up” on fixing the killing.
Galon mentioned at this stage they haven’t tied Escamilla to every other killings, however they’ve supplied his info and his “considerably broad M.O. to native legislation enforcement businesses to see if he could also be concerned in different crimes.”
Escamilla can also be charged with killing a person violently in Valley Village earlier this 12 months.
In late April, Menashe Hidra’s physique was discovered inside his fifth-floor Valley Village residence after Escamilla allegedly broke right into a neighboring unit, jumped from the balcony to his and attacked him, investigators mentioned.
Three days prior, neighbors had known as 911 to report listening to shouting and a battle coming from the residence. Officers responded to these calls, knocked on the door and left with out discovering something.
Hidra’s physique was found inside his top-floor unit on the Ashton Sherman Village advanced by officers doing a welfare test after a pal turned involved. Hidra was pronounced useless on the scene.
In a recording of a police dispatch name earlier than 4 a.m. April 23, a dispatcher is heard reporting the decision to officers within the subject: “Van Nuys models, attainable ADW [assault with a deadly weapon] in progress … caller hears two males combating and wrestling, banging and yelling.”
A number of legislation enforcement sources say cops responded to the scene however by no means entered the residence.
A day earlier than Hidra’s physique was found, LAPD officers investigated a housebreaking on the vacant residence subsequent door. Inside, officers discovered a shattered skylight and dried blood, in keeping with two sources not approved to debate the investigation.
Investigators suspect the killer could have damaged into the vacant residence neighboring Hidra’s by means of a skylight, then moved from the unit’s balcony to his. Chief Jim McDonnell mentioned that there was no signal of pressured entry into Hidra’s residence and, within the aftermath, introduced an inside probe into the dealing with of the preliminary responses.
Escamilla was finally taken into custody at a West Hills hospital after video of the particular person patrol officers and social media customers known as ‘The Valley Village killer’ allegedly confirmed him stalking the hallways of the residence advanced earlier than and after the slaying was unfold throughout the media worldwide.
Escamilla, McDonnell advised reporters, had lived a lifetime of uncertainty, going backwards and forwards between staying at his mom’s residence within the West Valley and sleeping on the streets. He was convicted of housebreaking in 2019, for which he served two years in jail, police mentioned.
Previous to the most recent allegations, Escamilla was going through misdemeanor fees in a February incident within the San Fernando Valley together with trespass, coming into a noncommercial dwelling and resisting arrest and was free on $10,000 bail. San Fernando police had beforehand arrested him in December.
Hidra’s household has sued the residence advanced house owners, and the advanced’s administration has filed a cross-claim naming the LAPD.
McDonnell within the aftermath mentioned that he anticipated officers in such conditions to talk to neighbors to collect extra info earlier than clearing a name, he mentioned that police can’t rush into each residence given the rise in so-called swatting calls — a harmful prank through which folks make false studies of violence in an effort to impress a big emergency response.
A wall between Menashe Hidra’s residence in Valley Village and a neighboring, vacant one was stained with blood.
(Richard Winton / Los Angeles Instances)
Blood was left on a stairwell door deal with on the Valley Village residence advanced the place Menashe Hidra was killed.
(Richard Winton / Los Angeles Instances)
Bloody handprints and marks had been seen on the wall between Hidra’s balcony and the vacant residence when a reporter visited with residents final week. Blood was additionally seen on the door deal with of a stairwell exit, the place the assailant was seen fleeing the constructing in a video launched by police.
