A 65-year-old Florida prison inmate serving time for committing a 1987 murder in that state was charged Wednesday with killing a 79-year- old Santa Ana man the year before.
Steven Wyvern White is accused of killing Dr. Cedric Horn, a semi- retired dentist who was reported missing in 1986, according to Senior Deputy District Attorney Larry Yellin.
Horn’s body has never been recovered, Yellin said.
White allegedly made “incriminating statements” regarding Horn’s disappearance while being questioned by Orange County sheriff’s deputies recently in Florida, the prosecutor said.
Detectives suspect White befriended Horn in order to steal from him, Yellin said. A check for $60,000 was drawn from the victim’s bank account, which the defendant tried to spend after Horn disappeared, Yellin said.
White is serving a life sentence for killing 48-year-old James Albert Boyd in February 1987, Yellin said. White, posing as Boyd, attempted to withdraw money from the victim’s bank account and then tried to refinance his truck.
When White was arrested in June 1987, he had Boyd’s property on him, Yellin said. After White’s conviction for killing Boyd, police in Florida told sheriff’s deputies in Orange County that the defendant was in possession of property belonging to Horn, Yellin said.
Horn left his home for a business meeting in Northern California on March 7, 1986, with plans to visit his daughter in Oregon, as well, Yellin said. Horn, however, told his daughter during the trip that he changed his mind and was headed home, the prosecutor said.
The victim’s car was found in Houston on April 7, 1986, with Horn’s blood soaking a passenger seat headrest, Yellin said.
This year, investigators established a DNA profile from the evidence in the car that matched the victim, the prosecutor said.
White is serving a 25 year-to-life sentence in Florida, where he is awaiting extradition to Orange County to face a murder charge that would keep him in prison for life without the possibility of parole if he’s convicted.
— City News Service