Care Facility Boarder Charged in Slaying

The Los Angeles County district attorney’s office filed murder charges Tuesday against a 34-year-old man in the beating death of his former roommate at an El Monte board-and-care facility for the mentally ill.

LaRay Anthony King, a resident of the Dahlia Gardens Guest Home for about two years, is suspected of beating to death Leonard Sutton, also 34, on Feb. 8.

Sutton was repeatedly beaten over the head with a large rock as he was watching television in the recreation room, El Monte Police Detective George Mendoza said.

Sutton, who had also lived at the home for two years, was taken to Greater El Monte Hospital, where he died an hour after the incident. King was being held in lieu of $1-million bail at Men’s Central Jail in Los Angeles.

The two men had roomed together at the facility, in the 12000 block of Dahlia Avenue, but were not roommates at the time of the death, Mendoza said. The motive for the attack is not known.

State Department of Social Services licensing authorities are also conducting an investigation into the death. Department officials could not be reached for comment on the case.

Karl Hoffman, owner of the care facility, said both Sutton and King were schizophrenic and both had been hospitalized several times at other facilities.

Hoffman said there was one staff member on duty in another room at the time of the attack. He dismissed the possibility of negligence on the part of the facility, saying residents are free to come and go as they please.

“How can they blame the board-and-care home?” Hoffman asked. He said the facility, which he has owned for 18 years, is licensed to house 92 people ages 18 to 60 and had 63 residents at the time of the attack.

Rock said that since November, two of the residents of the home have died after wandering into the streets and being hit by cars.

“There’s no lockdown,” said El Monte Fire Capt. Jim Rock. “That’s a problem.”

Owner Hoffman, however, said his residents have a right to use public phones and that he cannot restrict their freedom.