A murder charge was filed Monday against a 26-year-old U.S. Marine accused of killing his estranged wife in her Laguna Hills apartment last week.

Jerel Boykins, who’s being held in lieu of $1 million bail, is due in a Santa Ana courtroom Monday for arraignment on the murder count, along with a sentencing enhancement allegation of the fatal discharge of a gun.

Deputies were sent about 2:30 p.m. Thursday to check on Boykins’ 23-year- old estranged spouse, Yahaira, in the 25000 block of Via Lomas and found her dead of multiple gunshot wounds, according to sheriff’s department spokeswoman Jaimee Blashaw.

Friends said the victim had three young children, two of them fathered by Boykins, who was arrested at the Camp Pendleton Marine base a short time after her body was found.

The couple had split up about six months ago.

–City News Service

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