A parolee accused of fatally stabbing a 65-year-old sales clerk at a Lake Elsinore Walmart was charged Wednesday with first-degree murder and other offenses.
Lonnie Will Hinton III of Wildomar was arrested Monday after he allegedly killed Jessica Morales of Menifee.
Along with murder, Hinton is charged with a special circumstance allegation of lying in wait, a sentence-enhancing allegation of using a deadly weapon in the commission of a felony and parole violations.
He had been slated for arraignment Wednesday afternoon, but Riverside County Superior Court Judge Jeff Zimel postponed the hearing to Thursday morning at the Southwest Justice Center in Murrieta.
The defendant is being held without bail at the Byrd Detention Center.
According to Sgt. Jarred Bishop of the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department, just before 7 a.m. Monday, Hinton was inside the Supercenter at 29260 Central Ave., just east of Interstate 15, when he confronted Morales.
The specific circumstances were not disclosed, but Hinton allegedly pulled a knife and stabbed the victim, Bishop said.
He said the defendant fled as the woman’s co-workers called for help. The store had not yet opened, and no customers were present.
Paramedics arrived within 15 minutes and pronounced Morales dead at the scene.
“Homicide investigators believe … this (was) a random event, and there was no interaction between Hinton and the victim before she was killed,” according to a statement from the Riverside County District Attorney’s Office.
Relatives of Morales started a GoFundMe campaign for the benefit of her three adult children, who need the money for Morales’ “memorial and what she needs provided in her wake, without the financial burden,” they said.
“She was kind, generous and loving to everyone she encountered,” according to the GoFundMe account. “She always put people before herself. Though it pains us, we now have a beautiful angel looking over our family.”
The fundraiser can be found at gofundme.com/f/support-the-morales-family-in-memory-of-jessica?cdn-cache=0. As of Wednesday afternoon, just over $15,000 in donations had been raised.
Bishop said that before investigators could begin a manhunt for the defendant, Hinton walked into the sheriff’s Lake Elsinore station early Monday afternoon and surrendered without incident.
According to court records, he has prior convictions for robbery, theft and burglary.