Lodi's first, only double homicide remains one of city's cold cases

After five years with no charges, what happens to a homicide case?

In the matter of Lodi's first and only double homicide, detectives keep working the case. A reward is still offered and tips still come in, police said.

Monday marks five years since Timothie Wayne Layton, 20, and Danny Stewart Rogers, 48, were shot to death while sleeping in a white car in the Wal-Mart shopping center in southwest Lodi.

Nobody has been charged, possible sources with information have since moved and many people have since forgotten about the shootings. Even police personnel has changed: Some investigators have retired or moved on and Reba Ridino, the lead detective on the case, recently took a job as an investigator for the San Joaquin County District Attorney's Office.

But family members don't forget — some periodically ask if there's anything new and if the case is still open. Yes, it's open, Police Chief Jerry Adams said, and tips are still more than welcome.

"The reward is still valid as long as the crime is open, and in a homicide investigation the case is open forever," Adams said.

Despite the passage of time, detectives still get leads in the case. In the past six months, they've interviewed several people in connection with the double homicide, Detective Sgt. Doug Chinn said, adding that tips come from as far as Arizona, Oregon and Nevada.

"People talk to other people and mention a double homicide in the Wal-Mart parking lot," Chinn said. "Every time we get those calls, we follow them up."

Investigators have reexamined the possibility of any DNA evidence in the case, though that angle is not promising. The victims were shot from a moving vehicle at 1:40 a.m. on July 9, 2002, in the parking lot on the south-west corner of Kettleman Lane and Lower Sacramento Road. The vehicle left the scene and a security guard at nearby Food-4-Less, who saw muzzle flashes and initially thought he was the target, called police.

Other unsolved Lodi cases

• Aug. 26: Gary Lee Patterson, 31, of Lodi, was shot five times outside an apartment complex on West Lockeford Street. Police named 30-year-old Stockton man as a "person of interest" in the case. He is now in prison on unrelated charges and was not arrested in connection with the homicide.

• June 26, 2005: Francisco Javier Hernandez, 43, of Elk Grove, was shot multiple times outside the former Antonio's Latin Club at 701 S. Beckman Road. Police said Hernandez, a first-time patron at the club, had no gang or criminal convictions, and no suspects were named.

• May 1, 1991: Martha Menzel, 74, was found beaten to death inside her home in the 900 block of West Locust Street. No arrests were ever made, though various detectives have looked into the case over the years.

— News-Sentinel staff

Neither victim was without his own troubles; both were known to police and frequented homeless shelters. The night they were killed, they were sleeping in Rogers' 13-year-old white Cadillac DeVille, one in the front seat and one in the back.

Both men had several pain relievers in their bodies, according to toxicology tests. The tests showed that Rogers had used methadone, a common treatment for heroin addiction. There was no sign of any other drugs in their systems.

Regardless of their own troubles, the men had families, and Ridino has said more than once that, no matter what the case is, killers need to be held accountable.

After five years, investigators believe the case will most likely be broken by a tip. TV shows glamorize the science of DNA evidence, but a drive-by shooting doesn't quite fit those tidy, 45-minute episodes.

"It's just one of those cases," Chinn said. "There were a lot of bad people involved."

Cases are sometimes solved when relationships sour and cause a partner to contact authorities, such as a San Joaquin County Sheriff's case involving a man's body found in the California Aqueduct. The 1980 case went unsolved for 13 years, until a Colorado woman went to authorities, believing her husband had lived under a different identity.

Sheriff's detectives ultimately determined that the woman's husband had faked his own death and created a new identity after the killing.

And sometimes the suspect is the one who solves the case, as happened last month in New York City when a man walked into a police station and confessed to a murder.

According to newspaper accounts of the case, the man said he'd strangled a homeless woman during an argument in 2004, then recently had a religious conversion and came to believe that Jesus believed he should confess.

Anyone with information on the case may call Lodi police at 333-6727. Anonymous callers, who may be eligible for a cash reward, may contact Lodi-Area Crime Stoppers at 333-6771.

Contact reporter Layla Bohm at layla@lodinews.com.

Reader Feedback

Aunt Bernice wrote on Jul 7, 2007 4:30 PM:

" The investigation got off to a bungled start when the police officers, responding to initial reports of shots fired, were unable to locate the 2 dead men in their car despite broken glass all around it and sitting in an empty parking lot. "

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Huh? wrote on Jul 7, 2007 10:18 AM:

" Two homeless drug users are killed. Why waste effort on finding the killers? It sounds like they did the community a favor. "

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Taxpayer & Citizen wrote on Jul 7, 2007 9:55 AM:

" The LPD didn't find those two bodies in the car upon their first call and wasn't a couple of hours later, another caller had them back again and they actually looked inside and found the two dead men. Maybe that kind of police work explains why. "

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ARETHEYTHATSTUPID wrote on Jul 7, 2007 7:01 AM:

" PEOPLE IN THIS TOWN KNOWS EXACTLY WHO DID WHAT AND NO ONE TALKS BECAUSE OUR POLICE DEPARTMENT TAKES NOTHING VERY SERIOUSLY AND WOULDNT PROTECT ANYONE WHO COMES FORWARD TO TALK, SO COLD CASES WILL REMAIN COLD, BURGLARIES WILL GO UNSOLVED BUT THERE ARE ANSWERS CLOSE AT HAND "

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