Former LAPD officer dies by apparent suicide after being charged with murder

A former Los Angeles police officer died by apparent suicide in jail a few days after being charged with murder in the fatal shooting of her boyfriend last week at their home in western Arizona, according to authorities and local news reports.

Julia Peat, 60, was found unresponsive in her cell in Mohave County Jail in Kingman, Ariz., around 2:30 p.m. Sunday, according to Today’s News-Herald in Lake Havasu City. Jail officials attempted to resuscitate her, but were not successful, the newspaper reported.

Peat was being held on first-degree murder charges in connection with the killing of Mark Corbett. The shooting happened Thursday in a home in Lake Havasu City, a community of nearly 60,000 on the Arizona-California state line. The 69-year-old Corbett was pronounced dead at the scene after suffering multiple gunshot wounds, according to the News-Herald.

Peat reportedly said after the shooting that she feared for her life because she’d learned of crimes Corbett committed in the past, the paper reported, but investigators said they determined that Corbett hadn’t threatened or harmed Peat before the shooting.

On Tuesday, an LAPD spokeswoman confirmed that Peat had retired from the department in 2017, having most recently worked in the agency’s Harbor Division.

“The Los Angeles Police Department is aware of an alleged murder at the hands of retired Officer Julia Peat, who separated from the Department in 2017,” Chief Michel Moore in a statement. “We send our condolences to the family of the victim, and retired Officer Peat, who reportedly committed suicide while in custody.”

Police in Lake Havasu City said Tuesday that they could not release the incident report because they were still working to redact it.

Times staff writer Richard Winton contributed to this report.