A 72-year-old man pleaded no contest Friday to voluntary manslaughter involving a woman killed in South Los Angeles and discovered dead in the Central Valley.
Rodney O’Keith — who admitted an allegation that he personally used a firearm in the commission of the crime — was immediately sentenced to 15 years in state prison in connection with Patrice Armstrong’s shooting death, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office.
Tulare police said officers found a vehicle on fire after responding Feb. 15, 2024, to calls of a possible collision and discovered the woman dead in the trunk of the vehicle after the fire was put out.
Tulare police said detectives learned that O’Keith and the 58-year-old victim had been in a romantic relationship.
Tulare police detectives served a search warrant Feb. 21, 2024, at the victim’s home and located what appeared to be a crime scene, then contacted the Los Angeles Police Department after determining that the death had occurred in the LAPD’s jurisdiction, Tulare police said.
O’Keith was arrested by Tulare police in Visalia nearly two weeks after Armstrong’s body was found, according to the LAPD.
O’Keith was turned over to LAPD detectives that day, and has remained behind bars since then, jail records show.
Another man was arrested on suspicion of arson involving the vehicle fire in Tulare, according to media reports. No information was immediately available about the status of the case against him.