A 55-year-old man was convicted Monday of the 1989 cold case rape and murder of a woman whose body was found in a vacant lot just west of the Harbor (110) Freeway in the Westlake district.
A downtown Los Angeles jury deliberated about two hours before finding Orlando Dejesus Arredondo Donis guilty of first-degree murder and rape in connection with the Sept. 17, 1989, killing of 39-year-old Monica Wertlieb, who was discovered dead in the 1300 block of West 3rd Street, near Bixel Street and Lucas Avenue.
The jury also found true the special circumstance allegation of murder during the commission of a rape.
Arredondo Donis is facing life in prison without the possibility of parole, with sentencing set May 29 before Superior Court Judge Eleanor J. Hunter.
The defendant was arrested in October 2017 by detectives from the Los Angeles Police Department’s Robbery-Homicide Division and has remained behind bars since then, jail records show.
Deputy District Attorney Alexander Lara told jurors during his closing argument that the evidence showed that the victim was knocked unconscious and then dragged about 190 feet from the sidewalk to an area that was “completely hidden” in an elevated lot, where she was raped and her throat was cut with a broken bottle.
DNA testing done on evidence collected at the scene — including the victim’s body — subsequently linked Arredondo Donis to the crime, according to the prosecutor.
“Everything is a match to the defendant,” the deputy district attorney said.
Defense attorney Peter Chung countered that a “reasonable interpretation” of the evidence was that Arredondo Donis had sex with the victim a day or two earlier without being responsible for her murder.
“The issue is who did it,” he said of the woman’s killing. “Did it occur during a rape and was there a rape at all?”
He said there was “a lot of speculation,” telling the jury that it was not clear where she was killed or when she died.
The defense attorney asked jurors to acquit his client of both charges.
In his rebuttal argument, the prosecutor countered that there was “no DNA of anybody else” and said that Arredondo Donis had adamantly denied having sex with the woman when he was questioned by police.