Suspect Denies Slaying Woman
Denying charges that could carry the death penalty, an Oxnard man pleaded not guilty Tuesday in the 1995 kidnap and killing of a 73-year-old Oxnard woman.
Prosecutors allege that Kenneth McKinzie, 37, helped Ruth Eloise Avril haul a Christmas tree into her apartment the night of Dec. 21, 1995. Then, investigators suspect, he returned a few hours later, hid near her garage and ambushed her when she went downstairs to turn off a light.
Prosecutors say McKinzie beat Avril to death, stole the presents from under her tree and then used her car to dump her body in an irrigation ditch near Ormond Beach.
The district attorney’s office will probably decide within the next month whether to seek the death penalty for McKinzie, said Deputy Dist. Atty. Donald Glynn. The special circumstances that could make him eligible for the death penalty include murder committed during a robbery, murder while lying in wait and murder during commission of a carjacking.
McKinzie entered not-guilty pleas Tuesday to charges of murder, robbery, kidnapping, carjacking, residential burglary, and the special circumstances.
But he must wait in County Jail until February for trial, while Glynn and defense attorney Willard Wiksell handle the murder case of Alan Brett Holland. Holland goes on trial in November on charges that he killed Mildred Wilson of Oxnard during a carjacking.
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