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DNA could link death row inmate to child's unsolved murder
| Tuesday, Jul 1 2008 8:24 PM
Last Updated: Wednesday, Jul 2 2008 8:33 AM
Police have taken a DNA sample of a death row inmate because they believe he may have killed a 4-year-old girl 18 years ago.
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Jessica Martinez is pictured in this 1990 file photo.
Christopher Charles Lightsey is pictured in this 2001 file photo.
Detectives have been working on the unsolved strangling death of Jessica Martinez since 1990 and a recent forensic exam determined there was male and female DNA on shorts she was wearing when her body was found, according to a search warrant.
The suspect, Christopher Charles Lightsey, now sits on death row, convicted in 1995 of a brutal stabbing. Jessica’s family members have provided DNA samples, but investigators wanted to take a DNA sample of Lightsey.
18 YEARS AGO
On the evening of May 10, 1990, Jessica was playing in the dirt about 40 feet away from her family’s front door home in the Timber Cove apartment complex in the 5000 block of Belle Terrace.
At about the same time, Lightsey was at a poker party in his apartment in the same complex, according to the search warrant.
Lightsey, who was then on parole for lewd and lascivious conduct on a child, had moved into the complex about a week before Jessica was abducted. Lightsey is currently serving a death sentence for stabbing to death a 76-year-old cancer patient in 1993.
Lightsey was sent out to get beer after the party ran out. Partygoers said Lightsey was gone for an hour to three hours.
When he returned, Lightsey’s roommate said he acted “paranoid.”
Between 7 and 8 p.m., Jessica’s brother, Rudy, went looking for his sister. The 3-foot-tall, 32-pound child with long black hair and brown eyes was gone.
NO ARRESTS
The search for the girl began and a newly formed task force specifically tracked down clues of her disappearance. The public gave many leads and psychics even provided tips.
Lightsey told police he helped look for Jessica when he heard she was missing.
Jessica’s decomposed body was found almost two weeks later, buried in a cotton field 10 miles south of town. There were no arrests.
Police then interviewed Lightsey about Jessica’s death and he was in a panic, his sister said.
Lightsey told her to say he was with her if anybody asked. He said the police were trying to blame him for Jessica’s death, according to the search warrant.
He was “trying to cover up and make up an alibi,” she told a police sergeant.
Police made no arrests in connection with Jessica’s murder.
CRIMINAL HISTORY
In April 1993, Lightsey was arrested for molesting a 4-year-old girl, police said. Three months later, Lightsey was arrested for stabbing William Compton 43 times to steal his gun collection and two video cameras.
Following a well-publicized trial, he was sentenced to death in 1995.
In 2007, police interviewed Lightsey at San Quentin State Prison about Jessica’s death.
When shown a photograph of a maggot-filled gash on Jessica’s neck, Lightsey said, “It looks like a knife was used.”
The police sergeant had not told Lightsey how the girl was killed, the search warrant said.
In June, investigators swabbed Lightsey for DNA.
DNA test results take months to return, BPD Sgt. Greg Terry.
“Whenever you have an incident like this, there is an impact on the whole community,” Terry said. “There are few things more troubling to a parent than having something like this happen to a child.”