Man sentenced to life in prison for 1989 murder of woman

LOS ANGELES – A 55-year-old man convicted of murder in a cold 1989 case of a woman whose body was found in a vacant lot west of Harbor (110) Freeway in the Westlake District, was sentenced Wednesday to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Superior Court Judge Eleanor Hunter called the September 1989 murder of Monica Wertlieb “an absolutely atrocious crime” and noted that Orlando Dejesus Arredondo Donis did not show an “ounce of regret” when he was later questioned by the Los Angeles Police Department.

Arredondo Donis was convicted April 29 of first-degree murder, with jurors also finding true the allegation of special circumstances murder in the commission of rape.

Jurors also found the defendant guilty of raping the 39-year-old victim, but that charge was dismissed at sentencing because the judge noted that the statute of limitations for the rape charge had already expired by the time Arredondo Donis was indicted in 2017.

In a statement read to the court on her behalf, the victim's daughter said her mother made the “ultimate sacrifice” by putting her up for adoption after her birth in 1981. She wrote that she was later able to connect with some of Wertlieb's children. family.

“But because of Orlando Arredondo Donis, I will never be able to meet my mother. I will never hear his voice. I will never get the chance to look her in the eyes,” Katie Hepburn wrote in the statement.

She called her biological mother an “innocent woman” who lived simply and was an “easy target for a cowardly criminal” who continued to live her life “without caring or considering what he did to my mother or our family “. and wrote that he “should never have any hope of being released.”

Wertlieb's cousin, Mike Gale, called the victim a “gentle soul” and said she would be “no match” for anyone in any type of struggle.

“He is finally able to face the consequences of his actions,” Gale said of the accused.

The victim was found dead on September 17, 1989, in the 1300 block of West Third Street, near Bixel Street and Lucas Avenue.

Deputy Prosecutor Alexander Lara told jurors during his closing argument that evidence showed the victim was knocked unconscious and then dragged about 190 feet from the sidewalk to a “completely hidden” area in raised ground, where she was raped and her throat was raped. was cut with a broken bottle.

DNA testing of evidence collected at the scene – including the victim's body – later linked Arredondo Donis to the crime, according to the prosecutor.

“Everything fits the defendant,” the deputy prosecutor said.

Defense lawyer Peter Chung countered that a “reasonable interpretation” of the evidence was that Arredondo Donis had had sex with the victim a day or two earlier without being responsible for her murder.

“The question is who did this,” he said of the woman’s killing. “Did this happen during a rape and was there a rape?”

He said there was “a lot of speculation”, telling the jury it was not clear where she was killed or when she died.

The defense attorney asked jurors to acquit his client of both counts.

In his rebuttal, the prosecutor countered that there was “no DNA from anyone else” and said Arredondo Donis categorically denied having sex with the woman when questioned by the police.

Arredondo Donis was arrested in October 2017 by detectives with the Los Angeles Police Department's Robbery-Homicide Division and has remained behind bars since then, according to jail records.

Related