A felon on parole turned himself in to law enforcement Aug. 5 in connection with the stabbing death of a woman at Walmart in Lake Elsinore, California, the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department said.
Lonnie Hinton, 29, of Wildomar, about eight miles away from the crime scene, was arrested and booked into the Cois Byrd Detention Center on Monday. Hinton remained in the Riverside County jail Wednesday, according to inmate records, and is charged with felony first-degree murder and felony violation of state parole.
The Monday morning stabbing of Lake Elsinore Walmart employee Jessica Morales, 65, of Menifee, who was pronounced dead at the scene inside the store, appeared to be a “random” attack.
“This appears to be a random event, and there was no interaction between the suspect and the victim prior to the assault,” the sheriff’s department wrote in a statement Monday.
Hinton was released from state prison earlier this year after a robbery conviction and was on parole.
His conviction stemmed from a November 2020 arrest in connection to a stabbing at a Perris, California, restaurant, also located in Riverside County.
Sheriff’s deputies say they arrived within minutes of the stabbing to find an adult male restaurant employee with several stab wounds. The employee survived the attack, according to the sheriff’s department.
