Suspect charged in a second killing, an unsolved 2022 Woodland Hills home break-in slaying

The man who was seen stalking the halls of a Valley Village apartment building before he allegedly killed a resident in April has been linked to another brutal slaying from 2022, where an elderly woman’s body was burned, authorities said.

Erick Escamilla, 27, has been in custody since he was captured in May and charged with murder in the killing of Valley Village resident Menashe Hidra inside his fifth-floor apartment. On Monday, Los Angeles County prosecutors amended their case against Escamilla and added a second count of murder — for the slaying of Ok Ja Kim in 2022.

“I have worked many years in homicide and even more than that investigating violent crime, and I can honestly say that in my entire career, I don’t think I’ve ever seen such a senseless and brutal act of murder,” Det. Sharon Kim told reporters in 2022.

Ok Ja Kim, 81, was found on the floor of her bedroom on Martha Street in Woodland Hills, half hidden under her bed, “semi-charred, unconscious and not breathing,” according to police. She had been strangled and suffered “sharp and blunt force injuries,” police said. The home showed “extensive signs of arson.”

According to the criminal complaint filed by prosecutors Monday, Escamilla then stabbed a man about three weeks later during an attempted theft. Details on how investigators linked Escamilla to the crimes were not immediately clear.

“It was a team effort,” said LAPD Lt. Guy Galon, who oversees the valley homicide bureau. He said Det. Sharon Kim, who led the Woodland Hills murder investigation, “never gave up” on solving the killing.

Galon said at this stage they have not tied Escamilla to any other killings, but they have provided his information and his “somewhat broad M.O. to local law enforcement agencies to see if he may be involved in other crimes.”

California

LAPD launches ‘deep dive’ probes into officers’ 911 responses after two Valley killings go undiscovered

LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell said officers responding two separate 911 calls of violent assaults did not immediately enter the locations where slain victims were later found.

May 6, 2025

Escamilla is also charged with killing a man violently in Valley Village earlier this year.

In late April, Menashe Hidra’s body was found inside his fifth-floor Valley Village apartment after Escamilla allegedly broke into a neighboring unit, jumped from the balcony to his and attacked him, investigators said.

Three days prior, neighbors had called 911 to report hearing shouting and a struggle coming from the apartment. Officers responded to those calls, knocked on the door and left without finding anything.

Hidra’s body was discovered inside his top-floor unit at the Ashton Sherman Village complex by officers doing a welfare check after a friend became concerned. Hidra was pronounced dead at the scene.

In a recording of a police dispatch call before 4 a.m. April 23, a dispatcher is heard reporting the call to officers in the field: “Van Nuys units, possible ADW [assault with a deadly weapon] in progress ... caller hears two males fighting and wrestling, banging and yelling.”

Multiple law enforcement sources say police officers responded to the scene but never entered the apartment.

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A day before Hidra’s body was discovered, LAPD officers investigated a burglary at the vacant apartment next door. Inside, officers found a shattered skylight and dried blood, according to two sources not authorized to discuss the investigation.

Investigators suspect the killer may have broken into the vacant apartment neighboring Hidra’s through a skylight, then moved from the unit’s balcony to his. Chief Jim McDonnell said that there was no sign of forced entry into Hidra’s apartment and, in the aftermath, announced an internal probe into the handling of the initial responses.

Escamilla was eventually taken into custody at a West Hills hospital after video of the person patrol officers and social media users called ‘The Valley Village killer’ allegedly showed him stalking the hallways of the apartment complex before and after the slaying was spread across the media worldwide.

Escamilla, McDonnell told reporters, had lived a life of uncertainty, going back and forth between staying at his mother’s home in the West Valley and sleeping on the streets. He was convicted of burglary in 2019, for which he served two years in prison, police said.

Prior to the latest allegations, Escamilla was facing misdemeanor charges in a February incident in the San Fernando Valley including trespass, entering a noncommercial dwelling and resisting arrest and was free on $10,000 bail. San Fernando police had previously arrested him in December.

Hidra’s family has sued the apartment complex owners, and the complex’s management has filed a cross-claim naming the LAPD.

McDonnell in the aftermath said that he expected officers in such situations to speak to neighbors to gather more information before clearing a call, he said that police can’t rush into every home given the rise in so-called swatting calls — a dangerous prank in which people make false reports of violence in an effort to provoke a large emergency response.

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A wall between Menashe Hidra’s apartment in Valley Village and a neighboring, vacant one was stained with blood.

(Richard Winton / Los Angeles Times)

Blood was left on a stairwell door handle at the Valley Village apartment complex where Menashe Hidra was killed.

(Richard Winton / Los Angeles Times)

Bloody handprints and marks were visible on the wall between Hidra’s balcony and the vacant apartment when a reporter visited with residents last week. Blood was also visible on the door handle of a stairwell exit, where the assailant was seen fleeing the building in a video released by police.