Man, 19, Charged With Murdering Pastor
A 19-year-old man arrested last week in connection with the kidnapping and shooting of a Pasadena apartment building manager has been charged with murder in the shooting death of a pastor, whose body was found in his home near the kidnapping site.
Farren Bryant, of Fontana, was charged Tuesday in the slaying of Rev. Earle Bernard Neal, a Los Angeles pastor whose decomposing body was found by two of parishioners at his Pasadena home Dec. 7, the district attorney’s office said.
Bryant faces a special circumstances charge of murder in the commission of a burglary, which means prosecutors could seek the death penalty, authorities said. He will be arraigned Dec. 30.
Initially, Pasadena police believed the pastor died of natural causes, but an autopsy revealed multiple gunshot wounds. Bryant was arrested last Wednesday after he allegedly abducted Donna Haxton, 64, when police said she surprised him in her apartment. He took her to an Altadena middle school where he shot her in the head and left her to die, police said. But she managed to get help and identified Bryant, who was arrested in Fontana. Haxton suffered a scalp wound, police said.
When investigators searched Bryant’s home they found Haxton’s car and the license plate of Neal’s car, police said.
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