VAN NUYS : Suspected Rapist-Killer of Teen, Woman Seized

A Van Nuys man who police said “leans toward satanic beliefs” has been arrested on charges that he raped and sodomized a 13-year-old girl, then shot her and a woman several times and left them fatally wounded on roadsides a few miles apart in the northeastern San Fernando Valley.

Steven Carl Leigh, a 35-year-old worker with the Department of Water and Power, pleaded not guilty Tuesday in San Fernando Municipal Court to two counts of first-degree murder and one count each of rape, sodomy and lewd conduct with a minor under the age of 14, authorities said. He also faces allegations of murder with special circumstances.

He is charged in the deaths of Jamie Jensen, a runaway teen-ager from Canoga Park, and Dawn McGrath, 21, of Mission Hills. The two were found 2 1/2 miles apart in the Pacoima and Mission Hills area on Jan. 20 and died of gunshot wounds to the head and upper body a few days later.