Two days earlier than her physique was discovered burning in a Fresno alley, N-Kya Rebecca Logan was having a child bathe.
The 26-year-old was about 36 weeks pregnant with a boy, whom she deliberate to call Noah.
However on Tuesday, authorities stated, that future for mom and son was worn out in a grisly killing by the hands of her brother.
Aaron Jamal Dudley, 41, was arrested in reference to the killing, accused of stabbing Logan to dying earlier than taking her physique to an alley and setting it on hearth, Fresno Police Chief Paco Balderrama stated Wednesday at a information convention with Dist. Atty. Lisa Smittcamp and different officers.
The investigation started round 12:30 p.m. Tuesday when somebody reported seeing a physique on hearth in an unpaved alley close to the 4400 block of North Cornelia Avenue, Balderrama stated.
Detectives named Dudley because the suspect after recovering proof and knowledge together with a bystander’s image they consider exhibits Dudley standing over Logan’s physique and surveillance footage displaying him pushing a trash bin they consider contained the physique, Balderrama stated.
Dudley was arrested whereas attempting to flee the house he shared together with his mom and Logan, Balderrama stated. Detectives had gone to the house after getting a search warrant.
“He ran from police, which is one thing very typical of a responsible individual,” the chief stated.
Dudley was booked at 5:43 p.m. Wednesday, based on Fresno County Sheriff’s Workplace jail data.
Police had beforehand been known as to the house on July 28, 2021, when somebody known as to report that Dudley was a risk to himself or others, Balderrama stated. He was positioned on an involuntary 72-hour psychiatric detention.
Nonetheless, the chief stated he believed Dudley could be competent to face trial.
“This can be a one who had the wherewithal to attempt to clear up the proof, attempt to eliminate the physique, ran when police got here to knock on the door to see what was occurring,” Balderrama stated. “This isn’t any person who doesn’t know what he’s doing.”
Authorities stated they consider Logan and her unborn little one died of stab wounds, however launched few different particulars Wednesday.
Requested what kind of weapon was used, Balderrama stated “an edged weapon similar to a knife,” however he declined to specify.
Smittcamp stated her workplace intends to cost Dudley with two counts of homicide with particular circumstances, which might make him topic to the dying penalty or life in jail with out the opportunity of parole.
“A 3rd-party killing of a fetus with [premeditation] is homicide so long as it may be proven that the fetus had progressed past the embryonic stage … seven to eight weeks,” she stated.
A fetus’ viability exterior of the womb “just isn’t a component of the crime as a way to show a fetal homicide,” Smittcamp stated.
The case has not but been offered to the district lawyer’s workplace.
