By Lauren Keene and Tanya Perez
A 52-year-old Davis man with a history of drug and theft convictions has been arrested on suspicion of murder, marking the city’s first homicide in nearly a year-and-a-half.
John Paul Johnson was taken into custody at about 3 p.m. Friday, roughly six hours after officers were summoned to the Pacifico Student Cooperative housing community, 1752 Drew Circle, to investigate reports of a woman in her 30s found deceased inside her room, according to Lt. Tom Waltz.
“Based on initial observations, the responding officers quickly considered the death and attendant circumstances to be suspicious in nature, warranting a homicide investigation,” Waltz said in a news release.
As of Saturday evening, police had not released any additional details about what may have caused the woman’s death. An autopsy is scheduled for Monday or Tuesday, after which Yolo County coroner’s officials will release the woman’s name, and cause and manner of death.
Johnson is being held without bail at the Yolo County Jail on murder and violation of probation charges. He is scheduled to be arraigned at 1:30 p.m. Tuesday in Yolo Superior Court.
Online court records show Johnson was arrested in this county three times last year and once in 2015 on charges including drug possession, grand theft, petty theft, battery and brandishing a weapon, though the case involving the latter two counts was ultimately dismissed. He received jail time and probation in late October for possessing a controlled substance for sale.
In Sacramento County, Johnson was convicted of receiving stolen property in 2013 and possessing burglary tools in 2012, court records show.
Neighbors of the victim say she is 37 years old and has lived at the cooperative since last August. But no one had seen her for a couple of days, one resident said, prompting the woman’s mother to call the on-site caretaker and ask that she be checked on.
“She was connected to her mother and her aunt,” said Valerie Osborne, who moved to Pacifico around the same time as the victim. She found out about the death when she returned home Friday and saw a chaplain’s car parked outside.
She said the woman and Johnson lived on the same floor “but were not living together. They were not a couple — she just started hanging with him.”
Another neighbor, Peter S. Lust, has lived at the complex since January 2016 and mainly remembered the victim from seeing her walking her pit bull around the grounds.
Both described the Pacifico housing units as a place where many of the residents have a variety of hardships, from poverty to mental illness.
“You do your best here,” Osborne said.
Asked if they felt it was a dangerous place to live, Lust said, “I naively say it doesn’t feel dangerous,” but noted that “three situations” related to Pacifico — including the drug-related death of a 56-year-old man who stopped breathing while being taken into police custody last year — have made him “try not to jump to conclusions.”
Added Osborne: “You better have your own back.”
She described Johnson as “someone to avoid. He was probably giving (the victim) cigarettes and drugs and gifts,” and may have expected something in return.
The victim did not have a job and was not financially secure, said Osborne, adding that she recently learned the victim suffered from seizures and took medication for it.
However, Osborne does not believe the victim was concerned for her safety. “She never said she was in danger.”
Lust reiterated his shock. “Ever since I was a kid, I knew this — there was an evil in the world.”
Osborne agreed.
“It’s stunning” when someone this young dies,” she said. “It’s extremely sad, the pain that her mom and her aunt are going through. Some people are born without souls.”
The homicide investigation remains active, Waltz said. Anyone with information is urged to call the Davis Police Department at 530-747-5400.
Davis’ last homicide occurred on Sept. 19, 2015, when Peter Gonzales, a 23-year-old college student from Los Angeles, was fatally stabbed during an altercation at the KetMoRee nightclub at Third and G streets. Gonzales had been in town with his family to celebrate his sister’s wedding.
Six Vacaville men, all alleged Norteño gang members, face murder and criminal street gang charges in connection with Gonzales’ death. Their trial is scheduled to begin in early June.
— Reach Lauren Keene at lkeene@davisenterprise.net or 530-747-8048. Follow her on Twitter at @laurenkeene. Reach Tanya Perez at tperez@davisenterprise.net or 530-747-8082. Follow her on Twitter at @EnterpriseTanya