Jurors reach verdict in Redlands body-dumping case
Jurors on Wednesday found a Victorville man guilty of the second-degree murder of a Hesperia woman, whose decomposed body was found in a Redlands field.
Regis Anthony Cooper is scheduled to return to court March 13 where he could face a prison sentence of 15-years-to-life, Redlands officials said.
The victim, 53-year-old Linda Odom was found dead Aug. 30, 2006 by workers clearing brush out of a field at the corner of Ford Street and Sunset Avenue.
Police had to scour missing persons databases and conduct a DNA comparison in order to identify her, due to her badly decomposed remains.
Cooper and his girlfriend had been living with Odom about a month when she was reported missing in April 2006.
The night before Odom's disappearance, Cooper and his girlfriend fought in the apartment on April 30. Police arrested Cooper's 20-year-old girlfriend. When she returned to the apartment on May 2, Odom was gone and Cooper said she left.
Family members confronted Cooper at the apartment complex, but he told them Odom had a stroke and was living with her mother. He later said she was in a hospital.
melissa.pinion-whitt@inlandnewspapers.com
I was on the juryduty for that case but thank God I off the juryduty. That guy now have face God what he did to that woman. My God help the Victim's Family to try to get over thier love one and May God Bless them too. If I was on that jury I wounld say Guilty too. Because he had lot of wittness Aginst him. My God be with j=him and His Family.