DNA Links Inmate to 1980 Slaying
Genetic evidence from a 1980 Orange County rape and murder has linked a Florida inmate to the crime, the California attorney general’s office said Thursday.
Benjamin Wayne Watta, 55, was identified when authorities ran the DNA evidence through the California DNA Convicted Felon Databank.
He will be extradited to California and charged with first-degree murder, a Seal Beach police spokesman said.
The genetic code of Watta, who is serving a 10-year sentence for attempted murder, was in the databank, and a computer matched the two samples, officials said.
The body of Simone Sharpe, 70, was found by her son in a Seal Beach home on Christmas Eve 1980. Sharpe was house-sitting at the time.
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