DNA on piece of latex led to suspect in Koreatown homicide, police say

A match from a DNA sample left on a piece of latex led police to the 66-year-old suspect who pleaded not guilty this week to killing a 62-year-old man in Koreatown in March, a prosecutor said Tuesday.

Responding to complaints about a foul smell in mid-March, Los Angeles Police found Cornelius Rich dead in his Koreatown apartment at 527 S. Kingsley Drive. He had died about 10 days earlier as a result of blunt-force trauma, police later said.

A small piece of latex, that police believe to be from a glove, was found torn along the zipper of Rich’s pants, Los Angeles County Deputy District Atty. John Gilligan said. DNA pulled off the glove eventually matched a sample in the national law enforcement DNA database that belonged to Roy Lee Adams, prosecutors said.

Adams had previous convictions for drugs, trying to escape from prison and carrying an unregistered, loaded gun, according to prosecutors.

Although Adams and Rich seemed to be friends, the motive for the killing appears to be robbery, Los Angeles Police Lt. John Radtke said. The latex, he said, was likely left behind as Rich allegedly searched for cash.

HOMICIDE REPORT: Tracking killings in Los Angeles County

Adams was arrested last week at a downtown building housing people suffering from mental illness or chronic homelessness.

Adams pleaded not guilty to murder with an enhancement of using a blunt object. If convicted, he faces up to 25 years to life in prison.

Adams was being held in lieu of $1-million bail and is due back in court Jan. 10.

The case is one of three homicides reported this year in Koreatown, a neighborhood that saw a dozen or more homicides a year as recently as 2008. Of this year’s cases, one involved a victim being shot on a sidewalk and remains unsolved. A suspect has been charged in the other, a robbery-homicide.

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