DNA links convict to unsolved homicide of local woman
A convicted felon who’s DNA has linked him to a 1998 Santa Monica murder plead not guilty to charges of brutally raping and killing a 20-year-old female victim.
David Thomas Wright, 47, was arraigned Wednesday in a downtown Los Angeles Superior Court building. Wright has been charged with the June 14, 1998 rape and murder of Aviva Labbe, who was found sodomized and murdered in a walkway of a vacant Santa Monica home.
A preliminary hearing date will be set when Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorney Ellen Aragon and Wright’s public defender meet on Sept. 9th at a “scheduling” hearing. Until then, Wright is being held without bail.
However, the prosecution believes the preliminary hearing will not take place for many months.
“There’s a lot of evidence to go over,” said Sandi Gibbons, a spokeswoman for the district attorney’s office.
Wright is already 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, a jury found Wright guilty of battery, resisting arrest and failing to register himself as a sex offender.
Aragon filed charges last month against Wright, who was homeless and living on the streets of Santa Monica before being arrested, according to police.
Wright was a twice convicted felon before the murder and has an extensive arrest record, said district attorney spokeswoman Jane Robinson.
Labbe’s murder had been classified as a “cold case” and remained unsolved for nearly four years. There were no suspects until a sampling of Wright’s DNA linked him to the murder through the US Department of Justice database system, police said.
The murder case against Wright is considered a “special circumstance” because Labbe was sodomized. A panel will review the case against Wright to determine whether the state will seek the death penalty, Robinson said.
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, he was given a two-year prison sentence in an assault case. In 1999, he was acquitted for possessing a deadly weapon.
Earlier this year, he was sentenced for assaulting a police officer and failing to register as a sex offender. The charges stemmed from a conviction in another state.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on August 1, 2002. Read the original PDF.