LAPD Make Arrest in 30-Year-Old Echo Park Sexual Assault, Homicide Case

A man already serving a life prison term for murder was arrested on suspicion of sexually assaulting and killing a 36-year-old woman in Echo Park more than 30 years ago, police announced Friday.

Harold Anthony Parkinson, 55, is charged with murdering Stephanie Sommers, who was killed Aug. 30, 1980, inside her apartment in the 3500 block of Marathon Street.

Sommers died from blunt force trauma and multiple stab wounds, according to the cold case homicide unit within the Los Angeles Police Department's Robbery-Homicide Division.

Investigators said DNA evidence discovered at the crime scene was fed into a database, leading to a match with Parkinson. He was taken into custody Thursday at the Chuckawalla Valley State Prison in Blythe in connection with Sommers' death and transferred to the Men's Central Jail in downtown Los Angeles.

In Los Angeles, he faces a murder charge, along with a special circumstance allegation of murder during a rape. Prosecutors will decide later whether to seek the death penalty against Parkinson, who is scheduled to be arraigned July 9 in Los Angeles Superior Court.

The Los Angeles Times reported that Parkinson was serving a life sentence for killing his roommate seven months after Sommers died.

—City News Service