California Man Behind Bars 35 Years After He Killed, Raped 26-Year-Old Woman Whose Body He Dumped on Embankment
A man was convicted of first-degree murder and rape almost four decades after a woman was discovered dead in California.
A jury found James Charles Kingery, 57, guilty in Vista Superior Court for the death of 26-year-old Julia Hernandez-Santiago, the San Diego Union Tribune reported.
Hernandez-Santiago’s was strangled to death and her body was found in Carlsbad on an embankment on Oct. 10, 1987.
The case went cold, but Kingery was recently identified as a suspect in the case through DNA evidence collected after the victim was located.
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According to police, Kingery was arrested in March 2020 on unrelated suspected felony violations and he submitted his DNA, leading to a break in the murder case.
Kingery is scheduled to be sentenced in July.
He faces up to life behind bars.
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