| For Immediate Release Case # 06ZF0131 May 21, 2012 |
Susan Kang Schroeder Chief of Staff Office: 714-347-8408 Cell: 714-292-2718 Farrah Emami
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MAN LINKED THROUGH DNA CONVICTED OF COLD-CASE RAPE AND MURDER OF 42-YEAR-OLD ANAHEIM MARKET OWNER
SANTA ANA – A man was convicted today of raping and murdering a 42-year-old woman behind the counter of her Anaheim market after being linked to the crime through DNA. Louis Roger Acosta Jr., 41, was found guilty in a court trial by the Honorable William Froeberg of one felony count of special circumstances murder in the commission of rape and faces a sentence of life in state prison without the possibility of parole at his sentencing Aug. 31, 2012, at 9:00 a.m. in Department C-40, Central Justice Center, Santa Ana.
In the early morning hours of June 4, 1998, Acosta entered the D&D Market in Anaheim where 42-year-old store owner Dung Duong was known to sleep behind the counter when the market was closed. Acosta is accused of repeatedly beating the victim in the head with a blunt object and then raping her on the small makeshift mattress behind the counter as she bled.
After raping Duong, Acosta fled the scene. The victim bled to death as a result of the injuries to her head and was discovered several hours later, at approximately 11:30 a.m., after a regular customer saw Duong in a pool of blood through the store window.
The case went unsolved until 2004, when Acosta was linked to the crime through DNA while serving time in Washington for robbery.
The Anaheim Police Department investigated this case.
Senior Deputy District Attorney Howard Gundy of the Homicide Unit is prosecuting this case.
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