A man has been arrested and charged in connection with the killing of a man whose body was discovered in a 55-gallon drum on a beach in Malibu, authorities said Friday.
Joshua Lee Simmons, 37, is set to be arraigned next Friday on a murder charge stemming from the death of 32-year-old Javonnta Marshann Murphy on or about July 27, along with other charges.
Murphy’s body was found inside the drum July 31 at the 23200 block of Pacific Coast Highway.
A Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department official told reporters at the scene that the drum had been seen in the water at Malibu Lagoon State Beach the previous night by sanitation workers, but that they were unable to retrieve it.
A lifeguard spotted the same barrel the next morning and was able to bring it to shore, then opened it and discovered the body inside.
Sheriff’s homicide investigators determined that Murphy was shot, killed and stuffed inside the barrel. He died of a gunshot wound to the head, according to records from the county medical examiner’s office.
The murder charge includes an allegation that Simmons personally used a handgun during the commission of the crime.
Simmons is also charged with three counts of criminal threats involving separate victims on July 27 and Sept. 2, along with one count of attempted robbery Sept. 2 in El Monte. The criminal complaint alleges that he personally used bear repellent spray during the crimes in September, and that he had prior convictions from 2006 for grand theft of a firearm and 2008 for first-degree burglary.
Simmons was arrested Oct. 3 by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department and has remained behind bars since then in lieu of more than $3.2 million bail, according to county jail records.
A second defendant, Dennis Eugene Vance, 41, is charged with a felony count of being an accessory after the fact. He is free on bond while awaiting arraignment next week, jail records show.
The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department noted in a statement that the motive for the killing remains unknown, but that “both suspects in the case are known to be acquaintances of the victim.”