January 03, 2019 

City News Service 

 

The California Supreme Court refused today to review the case of a transient who is serving a 26-year-to-life prison term for fatally stabbing a South Los Angeles woman who had allowed him to stay at her apartment for about six weeks.

 

Laevin Meikel Weatherspoon was convicted in August 2017 of first-degree murder for the December 2013 stabbing death of Wanda Threadgill.

 

The 45-year-old woman -- who had been stabbed 27 times -- was found dead in her apartment on Dec. 17, 2013, after her daughter became concerned that she had not heard from her mother for nearly two weeks, according to Deputy District Attorney Casey Higgins.

 

Authorities determined that the 45-year-old woman had been killed nearly two weeks earlier.

 

In an Oct. 4 ruling, a three-justice panel from California's 2nd District Court of Appeal found that the evidence of Weatherspoon's guilt -- ``including his DNA on the murder weapon and his own admission on the witness stand'' -- was ``overwhelming.''

 

   Weatherspoon initially denied killing the woman, but acknowledged during the trial that he had stabbed her because she was ``acting `kind of crazy,''' according to the appellate court panel's opinion.

 

   Threadgill had allowed Weatherspoon -- who was homeless -- to live in her apartment for about six weeks, according to the prosecutor.

   Weatherspoon was arrested in Chicago in February 2014 after a warrant was issued for his arrest, and he was returned to Los Angeles County to stand trial.

Category: Community