LOS ANGELES—A former Inglewood middle school teacher convicted of murdering a 21-year-old woman in Gardena in 2005 and sexually assaulting another woman in Los Angeles just under a year and a half later died in jail while awaiting sentencing.
Charles A. Wright, 59, died in jail on Aug. 13, according to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner. His cause of death was listed as deferred, pending further tests.
According to jail records, Wright was being housed at the Inmate Reception Center in downtown Los Angeles, awaiting a Sept. 10 sentencing hearing.
Wright was facing a possible sentence of 50 years to life in prison. He was convicted last month of first-degree murder in connection with the April 26, 2005, strangulation of Pertina Epps, along with one count each of kidnapping for oral copulation and forced oral copulation involving a Sept. 17, 2006, attack on an 18-year-old woman, according to the District Attorney’s Office.
Epps’s body was found in an empty parking stall in the 2700 block of 141st Place by a resident backing out of a carport, authorities said.
“During a review of this case in 2021 by the Sheriff’s Homicide Unsolved Unit, forensic evidence left at the crime scene was resubmitted for examination, using current technology,” Deputy Alejandra Parra of the Sheriff’s Information Bureau said in January 2022. “DNA and fingerprint evidence was determined to belong to the suspect, Charles Wright.”
In August 2022, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department Lt. Hugo Reynaga described the victims as “known prostitutes,” and said evidence obtained during the investigation indicated that “prostitutes were likely targeted in both cases.”
Wright—a long-time middle school teacher—had still been working for the Inglewood Unified School District at the time of the arrest in January 2022 and was released from custody after posting a $1 million bond, according to the sheriff’s lieutenant.
Five days after Wright’s release from jail, an analysis of DNA evidence obtained as a result of the September 2006 attack led to Wright as the “likely offender,” the lieutenant said in August 2022.
He was subsequently re-arrested and charged with both crimes, Reynaga said then.
Wright remained behind bars since then without bail, jail records show.
