The San Jose Police Department has identified the suspect responsible for the murder of 30-year-old Jennifer Joo Lee that occurred earlier in September in San Jose. This was the city’s 23rd homicide of the year. According to San Jose Police Press Information Officer Sgt. Enrique Garcia, “On Saturday, September 12, 2015, at 7:28 a.m., San Jose Police and Fire Department personnel responded to the Mosaic Apartments at the 500 block of Race Street on a report of a 30-year-old female not breathing.” First respondents found the woman lying on the kitchen floor. Garcia said, “Fire personnel pronounced the victim deceased.” A preliminary investigation into the cause of Jennifer Lee’s death revealed that she had been arguing with 36-year-old Darrell Andrew De Leoz, when he began to beat her in her head and body. Investigators were able to piece together a timetable of events leading up to the finding of Lee lying in a pool of blood with severe head and face injuries, caused by blunt force trauma. Responding units believed that Lee’s body had been there for a long, but undetermined period of time before De Leoz reported finding her. De Leoz had told police that he found her like that, but with the testimony of neighbors about hearing a loud argument and fighting the night before, they were certain that her death was no accident. A coroner’s report concluded that Lee suffered injuries to the back of her head and her face. She also had a lacerated liver with several fractured ribs, initially determined to have been caused by blunt-force trauma. At the time of the investigation De Leoz was cooperative with investigator, who had made the eventual determination that De Leoz had taken the life of his live-in girlfriend. According to Garcia, “The known male suspect, 36-year-old Darrell Andrew De Leoz, was arrested and booked into the Santa Clara County Jail for murder.” Anyone with information is asked to contact Detective Sergeant Bert Milliken or Detective Raul Corral of the San Jose Police Department’s Homicide Unit at 408-277-5283. De Leoz is being held in the on a no bail warrant. His next court appearance has been scheduled for September 29, 2015 in Dept 44 at 9:00 AM at the San Jose Superior Court Hall of Justice.
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