MOORPARK : Man Pleads Not Guilty in Slaying
A Moorpark man charged with murdering his wife and dumping her body in Somis pleaded not guilty Wednesday.
A Feb. 16 preliminary hearing is scheduled for James Michael Linkenauger, 38, to determine if there is enough evidence against him to send the case to trial. Linkenauger, an unemployed mechanic, remains in Ventura County Jail with bail set at $250,000.
He is charged with the Jan. 17 strangulation murder of JoAnn Linkenauger, 39, whose body was found a day later lying face down in the mud along a rural road. Court records indicate that James Linkenauger had a history of beating his wife, who had sought protection by obtaining a restraining order to keep him away from her.
Municipal Judge Bruce A. Clark, who took the plea, ordered Linkenauger to submit a blood sample to the prosecution for analysis. While Deputy Dist. Atty. Richard Holmes refused to discuss the facts of the case, a sworn declaration that he filed with the court said he wanted the sample to compare with blood found on pieces of rug found at the defendant’s residence.
Comparison of the stains with Linkenauger’s blood “may provide evidence that the blood belongs not to him but to his wife, the murder victim and other occupant of the residence,” the declaration states.
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