Local News in Brief : Man Guilty in Rape, Death
A former dog groomer, once described by police as a “one-man crime wave,” was convicted Monday by a Los Angeles Superior Court jury of raping and murdering a Mid-Wilshire woman in the course of a $15 robbery.
Kevin Bernard Haley, 24, could get the death penalty for the September, 1984, strangulation murder, rape, sodomy, robbery and burglary of Dolores Clement, 55.
The jury, which began deliberations May 24, deadlocked on whether Haley murdered Laverne Stolzy, 56, in 1984, and on attempted rape and oral copulation counts involving a third victim, who did not testify at the trial.
A mistrial was declared on those counts after jurors voted 9 to 3 for acquittal in the Stolzy murder and 7 to 5 for a verdict of guilty in the third case, Deputy Dist. Atty. Steven M. Barshop said.
Haley is facing a separate trial in the murder of Jodi Samuel, 15, who was robbed and shot on a Wilshire-area street as she walked to catch a school bus.
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