Man Arrested in Roommate’s Killing

Police arrested a Van Nuys man Tuesday on suspicion of beating his disabled roommate to death.

The body of Robert Lee Solandino, 63, was found by a friend Monday afternoon in the weathered, Cape Cod-style apartment complex on Friar Street where he lived with Michael William Willoughby.

Los Angeles detectives arrested Willoughby, 57, less than a quarter of a mile from the crime scene. He is accused of beating, cutting and stabbing Solandino on Saturday night.

The diminutive, bespectacled Solandino recently had undergone stomach surgery and was receiving disability payments, police said.

“The victim couldn’t defend himself,” Det. Al Aldaz said. “It was a very brutal killing.”

Neighbors reported seeing Willoughby running from the apartment complex Saturday night, police said.

Aldaz described Willoughby as a diagnosed schizophrenic who has been in and out of mental institutions. He also served time in state prison from 1988 to 1992 for robbery, Aldaz said.

Four months ago, Solandino answered a newspaper ad for a roommate and moved into the second-floor apartment rented in Willoughby’s name, police said.

Shortly before that, Willoughby had attacked another roommate because the man didn’t have a spare cigarette, Aldaz said.

Anyone with information about how to reach Solandino’s family is asked to call the LAPD’s Van Nuys station at (818) 756-8348.