Los Angeles, CA — A man accused of raping a teenage girl and a young woman and dumping their dead bodies by the freeway in Lincoln Heights in 2011 was caught because he spit on the sidewalk while being followed by police.
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A DNA test of the spit left by Geovanni Borjas, 32, tied him to the killings of 17-year-old Michelle Lozano and 22-year-old Bree’Anna Guzman, LAPD Chief Charlie Beck announced Tuesday.
“DNA collection at time of arrest allowed us to connect this monster to the deaths of these two young women,” Beck said.
Borjas was charged Tuesday with two counts each of murder and forcible rape and one count of kidnapping, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office. He pleaded not guilty in criminal court on Tuesday afternoon.
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Lozano vanished around Easter 2011, when she was taking a walk near her Lincoln Heights home. Her body was found a day later near the 5 Freeway.
The day after Christmas, Guzman left her apartment in Lincoln Heights to pick up medication from a nearby pharmacy — and never came back. Her body was found off the freeway a month later, and she had also been sexually assaulted.
The LAPD’s Robbery-Homicide Division worked the investigations, but progress was slow for several years. Since a match to the attacker’s DNA had not turned up in any state or national criminal databases, the investigators began the “exhaustive protocols” set up by the state Attorney General’s Office to request a familial search.
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About a month ago, they got a hit: It was Borjas’ father, who had a previous arrest on his record. Further detective work identified Borjas as the possible suspect, Beck said.
They began surveillance, and got a stroke of luck when the suspect spat on the sidewalk. That saliva was tested, and the DNA matched evidence linked to both killings.
Borjas was arrested May 25 at his home in Torrance. His next court date is June 22. He is being held without bail. If convicted as charged, Borjas faces life in prison without parole or the death penalty.
Beck asked the public to look at the photo of the suspect and contact investigators with any information about this case or other possible crimes he may have been involved with in the past.
Read more:
Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office
Main photo: Geovanni Borjas [LAPD]
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