4 more murders linked to California serial killer, prosecutors say

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STOCKTON, Calif. A Northern California serial murder suspect was charged with four additional murders this week, bringing the total to seven deaths since April 2021, authorities said.

The shooting terrorized the town of Stockton in the Central Valley earlier this year as police searched for a man dressed in black who appeared to be on a mission as he chased victims for ambush-style shootings. He was also the victim of related violence in Alameda County.

Three of the four murders listed in court documents on Tuesday have already come to light with authorities who earlier said they linked suspect Wesley Brownlee to the murder of six men and the wounding of a woman, but no charges have been laid. has been filed.

Tuesday’s fourth case, an April 2021 murder that brings the total to seven murders, had not previously been reported.

Brownlee was arrested in October while searching for another possible victim in Stockton, police said at the time. He is due in court on January 3. His public defender, Allison Nobert, did not immediately return a request for comment.

Brownlee was initially only charged with the deaths of three victims in Stockton: Jonathan Rodriguez Hernandez, 21, who died August 30; Juan Cruz, 52, died September 21; and Lawrence Lopez Sr., 54, who died Sept. 27.

The amended lawsuit, filed Tuesday, further charges Brownlee with the murder of Paul Yaw, 35, who died July 8, and Salvador Debudey Jr., 43, who died August 11 in Stockton, as well as the fatal county shooting. from Alameda. 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 shooting of 46-year-old Natasha LaTour.

Harmon had never been publicly linked to the series of Brownlee shootings. Additional details about Harmons’ death were not immediately available.

Convicted of a drug offense, Brownlee was prohibited from owning a firearm and he allegedly used an unregistered ghost gun to carry out at least some of the murders, police said in October after his arrest.

In January 1999, Brownlee was sentenced to two years in Alameda County, which includes the city of Oakland, for possession and sale of a controlled substance, the California Department of Corrections said. He was paroled in August 1999 after serving seven months.

Brownlee was convicted again in Alameda County in December 2001 and sentenced to three years for the same crime. He was paroled in May 2003 and released three years later.

Associated press

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