Charles Case Investigators Plan Blood Tests

Investigators said Thursday they plan to test for blood stains on a pair of high-top sneakers and sparring gloves that were seized last week from the family house where Edward Charles III is accused of killing his parents and younger brother.

Investigators also will test blood stains that were found on a night stand and wall inside the Fullerton house.

The sneakers, gloves and blood samples were the only items listed in a sparsely worded report on the daylong house search following the Nov. 6 slayings of Edward and Dolores Charles, and their son Danny, a USC student. The report was filed in court Thursday.

The three were found dead in a family car that had been doused with gasoline and set on fire Nov. 7 outside a La Mirada high school. The suspect was arrested two days later.

Though no blood was visible on the black-and-white sneakers, Charles is believed to have been wearing them at the time of the killings, said Detective Ron Lancaster of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, which is leading the investigation.

Early on the morning after the family was killed, Charles was seen by a neighbor wearing a pair of black fingerless gloves as he appeared to be wiping his driveway with a rag, according to a police affidavit. A substance resembling blood was on the seized sparring gloves, said sheriff’s Lt. Ray Peavy.

Charles, a 22-year-old mechanic, is an amateur boxer.

Peavy described the house search as fruitful, even though investigators have yet to find the hammer and knife they believe were used in the killings.

Edward and Danny Charles were determined to have been bludgeoned to death. Danny Charles, whose body was found unburned in the trunk of the charred Honda, also suffered stab wounds and strangulation. Dolores Charles had bruises on her throat, but the cause of her death was unknown because she was burned too severely.

Peavy said investigators were able to recover spattered blood inside the house, though there had been evident attempts to clean the house before investigators obtained a warrant early on Nov. 10, just hours after Charles was arrested there in front of relatives and his fiancee.

Charles was charged Monday with three counts of murder with a special circumstance that could mean the death penalty if he is convicted. He is to be arraigned Nov. 28.

Charles has steadfastly maintained his innocence to authorities. An affidavit used to obtain the search warrant claimed he confessed the killings to friend Nov. 8, one day after the bodies were discovered; his defense attorney has denied there was any confession.