Murder Suspect From O.C. Found in Oregon Home

A single mother who took in a stranded motorist for two weeks learned when police came calling that she had been sheltering a murder suspect from Westminster.

Ashland police arrested Wayne Weston Burleson, 20, on a California murder warrant Monday afternoon.

“We showed her a photo. She said, ‘He’s in the back taking a shower.’ He had his pants on by the time we got back there, but it couldn’t have gone smoother,” Sgt. Ric Walsh said.

The woman who helped Burleson said she never feared he would harm her family.

Burleson is wanted in the shooting death of Steven Wayne Preston, 32, also of Westminster. Preston’s body was found Sept. 22 alongside the Garden Grove Freeway.

Witnesses saw Burleson and Preston together three to four hours before the killing. Westminster Det. Terry Selinske said evidence turned up in a search of Burleson’s apartment and a vehicle also linked him to the slaying. A second suspect, not yet in custody, is thought to have been present at the time of the killing, Selinske said.

Westminster police tracked Burleson to the Seattle area, then heard he’d bought a car and was trying to get money wired to him in Ashland. Burleson had remained in contact with friends in Westminster, Selinske said.

The Ashland woman, who asked not to be named, said she stopped to help Burleson after seeing his engine catch fire on Interstate 5 south of Roseburg.

Despite his numerous scars, tattoos, a festering 1-inch cut on his left hand and “a weird face,” Burleson was disarmingly personable, the woman’s 13-year-old daughter said. Only when the girl saw Burleson arrested on suspicion of murder did his stay become creepy, she said.

“He was like our sister or brother after just a half hour of talking to him,” the girl said.

Burleson was being held on $250,000 bail in the Jackson County Jail. He waived extradition to California on Tuesday and will be transported within 10 days.