Suspect in murder case has extensive criminal history
Officials will determine in the next month whether to seek the death penalty for a convicted felon who is accused of murdering a Santa Monica woman nearly five years ago.
The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office last year charged David Thomas Wright, who was homeless and living on the streets of Santa Monica, with capital murder for allegedly killing Aviva Labbe on June 14, 1998.
Labbe’s murder had been classified as a “cold case” and remained unsolved for nearly four years.
There were no suspects in the homicide until a sampling of Wright’s DNA linked him to the murder through the U.S. Department of Justice’s database system, police said.
Wright, 48, was found in the California state prison system serving a 6-year sentence for battery of a Santa Monica police officer during an unrelated incident, authorities said. In January of 2002, a jury found Wright guilty of battery and resisting arrest. He also failed to register himself as a sex offender stemming from a prior conviction in another state.
Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorney Ellen Aragon said the DA’s office has written a recommendation about whether the state should seek the death penalty, however that report will remain confidential until a panel reviews the case against Wright.
Wright, who was homeless and living on the streets of Santa Monica before being arrested, pleaded not guilty to the murder charge last year. He is scheduled to appear in Los Angeles Superior Court on June 11, after the panel makes a recommendation on the death penalty issue.
“The committee must make the recommendation before a trial,” Aragon said. “He could enter a new plea in Superior Court. When he is arraigned again he has a chance to admit guilt or not admit guilt.”
Wright was officially charged with the murder on June 13, 2002, one day before the 4-year anniversary of Labbe’s death, who was 20 years old when she was found sodomized and murdered in a walkway of a vacant home in Santa Monica.
Police said Labbe had just moved to Santa Monica shortly before she was murdered. Police did not know where Labbe had moved from or where her family was located.
Authorities are not revealing circumstances surrounding the murder so the investigation won’t be compromised.
Court proceedings have moved slow since the charges were filed nearly a year ago. But because the case was considered “cold,” a significant amount of evidence has to be collected and there is no rush to trial because Wright already is in custody, Aragon said.
“All the continuances were for his benefit,” she said. “If he wants to, when he is arraigned, he can have his trial within 60 days.”
Wright’s public defender, Paul Golub, was unavailable for comment.
Wright was a twice-convicted felon before the murder and has an extensive arrest record, according to the DA’s office.
Wright’s rap sheet goes back to at least 1990 when he pleaded no contest to petty theft. In 1993, he was convicted of possessing a dagger and given probation.
In 1994, Wright was sentenced to two years in prison for assault with intent. In 1999, Wright was acquitted for possessing a deadly weapon.
In 2002, he was sentenced for assaulting a police officer and failing to register as a sex offender.
JUMP Murder suspect has extensive criminal history
0 1 DDA 1 00050000000B00000002 0 1 DDA 0
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on May 2, 2003. Read the original PDF.