Opinion ID: 2671522
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Murder of Tina Leal

Text: On December 13, 1989, Tina Leal‘s body was discovered in the Lake Elsinore area on a dirt road that was not well traveled. A T-shirt that did not belong to her was on her body. The cause of death was asphyxiation due to ligature strangulation and stab wounds to her heart. She had hemorrhaging within her neck and eyes, and abrasions on her neck from a ligature. She had four stab wounds to her chest inflicted antemortem, two of which penetrated three to four inches and into her heart. She also suffered numerous other antemortem injuries, including injuries to her lip and chin consistent with being hit, a black eye, an 2 It does not appear that any testimony was presented concerning defendant‘s ethnicity, but he appears in photographs in the record to be White. 5 incised or ―cutting‖ wound to her left breast, lacerations or ―splitting injuries‖ to her vagina, probably caused by blunt force, and a stab wound to the pubic area. Around her wrists and ankles was redness indicative of a binding ligature. A General Electric Miser 95-watt light bulb was found inside her uterus; the bulb apparently entered through the vagina and cervix. General Electric Miser 95-watt light bulbs were found in defendant‘s apartment. Hairs found on one of her socks and on the body bag in which she was transported from the crime scene were similar to defendant‘s head hair. Fibers found on the T-shirt were similar to carpet fibers in the two units of an apartment building in which defendant lived from March 1987 until mid-1988 and beginning again in March 1989. Fibers on the T-shirt were similar to the red acetate lining of the sleeping bag and the gold acrylic fabric that covered a pillow found in defendant‘s van. Fibers found in her hair and on her clothing matched a sisal rope in defendant‘s van. In April 1990, defendant gave one of his female friends a pair of red-andwhite cloth tennis shoes. A fiber found on Leal‘s sock was similar to the fibers of the tennis shoes, and purple-brown acrylic fibers found on the T-shirt on Leal‘s body were similar to fibers found on the tennis shoes. In addition, a hair found in the shoes was similar to Leal‘s hair. There were tire tracks on the shoulder of the road near Leal‘s body. Two tire tracks were consistent with a Yokohama 382 tire, and one tire track was consistent with an Armstrong Ultra Trac tire, which were the types of tires defendant had on his van at the time of this homicide.