By Melody Hanatani
Daily Press Staff Writer

MONTANA AVENUE A middle-aged Santa Monica man was found killed in his condominium on Wednesday night, the second homicide in less than one week shaking residents’ sense of safety in this relatively peaceful community.

Just four days after Santa Monica police officers discovered the body of a 21-year-old aspiring actress in her Centinela Avenue apartment — the victim of an apparent assault — 35-year-old Alexander Merman was found dead in his condo at 520 Montana Ave., believed to be killed from blunt force trauma.

Both Merman and Juliana Redding, who took several courses at Santa Monica College, were living alone and discovered after their mothers had asked for someone to check in on the victims, concerned after having difficulty reaching their children.

Investigators say they believe there is no connection between the two homicides.

Police received a call shortly before 8 p.m. from the building manager who had discovered Merman’s body. Authorities do not know how long the victim was deceased and there were no signs of forced entry.

“Perhaps someone knew him,” SMPD Lt. Alex Padilla said on Thursday. “At this point, it’s too soon to tell if anything is missing from the apartment.”

The otherwise sleepy block of Montana Avenue was transformed into a crime scene out of a movie on Wednesday, the building surrounded by police cars and ambulances, according to neighbors.

But by Thursday morning, the commotion from the night before had settled down, a few television news vans sprinkled around the blue and white three-story condominium complex, which had been cordoned off by yellow tape. On the second story stood several police officers, guarding the entrance to Merman’s unit where the body had been discovered just hours before.

The commotion had seemingly moved across the street where a group of neighbors curiously watched the crime scene before them, a sight rarely to be seen in this neck of the woods.

“It’s very unusual for this neighborhood,” Jacquelin Trotter, a 45-year resident said.

Trotter was walking her bichon frise dog that morning, a sense of perplexity written over her face, surprised to see that an actual homicide had happened on her block.

But despite the homicides that have taken place since Sunday when Redding’s body was discovered, Trotter said her sense of safety remains intact.

“We’re not afraid in this neighborhood,” Trotter exclaimed, turning to her fellow neighbors, asking how they felt. One replies that she agrees.

It’s a sentiment with which Laurie Allen, who has lived across the street from crime scene for four years, concurs, believing the killing was an isolated incident, perhaps involving a dispute between two lovers “gone awry.”

Allen, much like the rest of the residents that gathered across from 520 Montana that morning, didn’t know the victim. She recalls hearing a helicopter from her bedroom window on Wednesday night and being questioned by police later that evening.

“I had a funny feeling that something bad had happened,” Allen said. “But I’m not afraid — I live in the safest building.”

But not all neighbors are feeling as secure.

“I moved here from New Jersey in September and I thought I was moving to a safe neighborhood,” Erin Abrahamson, who lives around the corner, said on Thursday as she was walking her dog.

Abrahamson lives with her boyfriend but said she still fears for her safety and has asked her landlord to install extra locks son the front door.

“It’s definitely surprising,” she said.

Janine Johnson, who has lived on Montana for 17 years, said the neighborhood has become less safe in the past year due to a string of burglaries in the multi-million dollar homes just north of the corridor. One of the victims in those home burglaries was one of Johnson’s friends, who after returning from a grocery trip during the middle of the day discovered a ransacked house.

In terms of safety, Johnson said she just doesn’t feel the neighborhood is as safe as it was before.

“These may be isolated incidents,” Johnson said of the two homicides. “But how odd.”

Padilla assured that despite the two homicides, Santa Monica remains a safe community. He added that that department is pulling all of its resources to investigate the two deaths.

“Our crime rate is the lowest it’s been (in 50 years) and it continues to drop,” Padilla said. “This is an isolated incident that occurred.”

melodyh@smdp.com