Los Angeles Criminal Attorney Blog

The latimes.com website reported in an account on June 9th, 2009 that Nel Rasmussen, father of Sherri Rae Rasmussen had told investigators about an “ex-girlfriend” who was in the LAPD and had threatened his daughter several times shortly before she was found beaten and shot to death in her apartment.

According to the family’s lawyer, Rasmussen’s appeals were disregarded by detectives and they followed other possibilities to how Sherri was murdered.

Detectives are opening up thousands of old homicide files in an attempt to solve them using modern technology. After opening the investigation, detectives again interviewed Rasmussen. He reiterated that he suspected a former girlfriend who was a police officer of killing his daughter. Prosecutors have now charged Detective Stephanie Lazarus 49, with capital murder, which makes her eligible for the death penalty. Now Rasmussen is asking for a separate investigation into how the LAPD originally handled the case.

According to the report, investigators secretly followed Lazarus to a store, where they recovered a plastic utensil containing her saliva. According to the police, the DNA taken from the saliva matched DNA evidence found at the crime scene.

Homicide charges carry the most severe punishments in the state of California. In fact, recent U.S. laws have been passed that will increase the mandatory minimum sentences that will apply to people who are convicted of committing certain violent crimes. If you have been arrested for carrying out a violent crime in Los Angeles, you may be looking at a prison term of 25 years to life.