Brea : Man, 23, Convicted of First-Degree Murder
Jurors convicted a Brea man of first-degree murder Thursday for the 1978 strangulation death of a 72-year-old woman whose apartment he burglarized.
Dennis Reed Love, 23, also was convicted of the attempted strangulation of an 80-year-old woman last year and of burglarizing the apartments of both women.
Police arrested Love last year in connection with the April 19 attack on the 80-year-old woman. His fingerprints matched those taken in the investigation of the April 15, 1978, murder of Stella Katherine Coleman of Brea. Police linked the cases because the victims lived in the same apartment complex, both were choked and each apartment was entered through a bathroom window.
North Orange County Superior Court Judge James F. Judge, who presided over the trial in Fullerton, set sentencing for next Wednesday. Love could receive life in prison, according to Deputy Dist. Atty. Mel Jensen.
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