LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — A 55-year-old man was convicted Wednesday of first-degree murder in the slaying of an 80-year-old Venice woman in 1975.
Dennis Vazquez, of Los Angeles, was found guilty of the Dec. 17, 1975 strangulation of Alice Lewis, whose body was discovered in her Venice home, according to the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office.
Lewis was believed to have been killed during a residential burglary, Deputy District Attorney Guillermo Santiso said.
The case was cold for decades until DNA was tested from stored evidence. In 2009, a DNA hit identified Vazquez, who was a week away from turning 17 at the time of the murder, as a suspect, officials said.
A second defendant, Kevin Michael Shanahan, 54, was also charged in Lewis’ murder, but a judge ruled in 2012 that he was incompetent to stand trial and sent to Patton State Hospital.
Vazquez faces up to life in state prison when he is sentenced on Nov. 5.
