A former Inglewood middle school teacher was convicted by a jury this week in the slaying of a 21-year-old woman in 2005 and the kidnapping and sexual assault of another the following year, authorities said Friday, July 12. Charles Wright, 59, of Hawthorne faces the possibility of 50 years to life in state prison at sentencing, which is scheduled for Sept. 10, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office said.
Wright was convicted Wednesday in Inglewood Superior Court of strangling to death Pertina Epps in Gardena in April 2005, officials said, and in the September 2006 kidnapping and sexual assault of an 18-year-old woman in Los Angeles. The trial – which included the crimes against both women – lasted about a month, according to court records. Epps’ body was found by a resident in a carport at the rear of an apartment complex in the 2700 block of 141st Place about 1 p.
m., April 26, 2005, sheriff’s officials said. The 18-year-old woman was believed to have been kidnapped in Los Angeles, Lt.
Hugo Reynaga said at an August 2022 news conference. Sheriff’s homicide detectives investigated, but exhausted all leads and the Gardena case went cold, officials said. Investigators reviewed the case in 2021 and found evidence left at the crime scene, including fingerprint and DNA evidence, officials said.
They resubmitted that evidence for examination using current technology, which led them to Wright, Deputy Alejandra Parra said at the time of Wright’s arrest in Janu.
