Opinion ID: 844221
Heading Depth: 5
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Firefighters' discovery of Gordon's body in a burned blue Cadillac

Text: At 10:48 p.m., on October 4, 1995, Los Angeles County firefighters responded to a report of a burning vehicle on Santa Fe Avenue, in an isolated industrial area near Lakewood, approximately 16 miles from defendant's motel room, but only three miles from the address on defendant's driver's license. Firefighter Ken Salmans testified that when he arrived with the other firefighters, they discovered a late-model luxury car, light in color, with the trunk engulfed in flames. After the fire was extinguished, Salmans opened the trunk and saw the dead body of a woman. The body was severely burned, with particularly severe burns from the waist down. Salmans also smelled gasoline vapors. His opinion, based on the severity of the burns and the location of the fire, was that someone had poured gasoline directly on the woman. Detective Barry Shapiro of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department arrived at the scene while the fire in the trunk of the car was still burning. He testified that he was present when the trunk was opened. He identified the car as a light blue Cadillac, and he described the burned body of the woman in the trunk. The burns were particularly severe on the legs. The body, which had the name Kelly tattooed over the left shoulder blade, was later identified by thumbprint to be that of Kelly Gordon, the woman stopped with defendant and thumbprinted on the night before the murder. Sheriff's investigators discovered a blue plastic antifreeze container in the street near the car. The container smelled like gasoline. They also found rags that smelled like gasoline on the front passenger side floorboard of the car. DNA taken from a cigarette butt found on the driver's seat of the car matched Uele's DNA; only one in 3,400 people in the general population would have those same DNA markers. An arson expert ruled out an accidental cause of the fire and concluded that the fire was caused by igniting gasoline that had been poured inside the trunk, between the legs of the burned woman, and also on the top of the trunk. An autopsy discovered second- and third-degree burns covering 70 to 80 percent of Gordon's body, with particularly bad burns on the legs. It appeared that Gordon had suffered a bloody nose and a blunt force injury to the temple. She had an elevated carbon monoxide level in her blood, and soot was in her larynx, trachea, and lungs. These facts indicated that Gordon was alive when the fire was ignited and that she died from smoke inhalation and burns.