A 57-year-old convicted killer who served nearly three decades in state prison for fatally beating and stabbing his stepmother pleaded guilty Monday to murdering a retired doctor at her East Los Angeles home late last year.
Timothy Chavira was immediately sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the Dec. 7 killing of 76-year-old Editha Cruz de Leon at her home in the 3900 block of North Van Horne Avenue. Victim impact statements are scheduled for July 20.
Based on his prior conviction for murder, Chavira had been eligible for the death penalty.
The victim’s body was found a day after she was killed. She died of sharp force injuries and strangulation, according to the Los Angeles County coroner’s office.
De Leon — who had five sons and five grandchildren — had moved from the Philippines to the United States, where she was an obstetrician-gynecologist before retiring and traveling extensively across Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia, according to an online obituary.
Chavira was arrested in Pasadena two weeks after the doctor’s death.
He was previously convicted in 1988 of first-degree murder for beating and stabbing his stepmother to death two years earlier, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office. He was sentenced to 26 years to life in state prison and released on parole in July 2017.
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