Los Angeles Murder - LAPD Officer Charged With Murder

Veteran Los Angeles detective Stephanie Lazarus was charged with murder Monday in a Los Angeles court.  Prosecutors allege that Lazarus, who has been with the Los Angeles Police Department for 25 years, brutally beat than shot her ex-boyfriend’s new wife in her Van Nuys apartment in 1986.  Police investigators at the time attributed Sheri Rae Rasmussen’s murder to a string of robberies in the neighborhood.  The burglars were never captured and 29 year-old Rasmussen’s death remained a mystery.  Rasmussen’s family members mentioned Lazarus as their son-in-law’s ex-girlfriend at the time, but investigators never questioned her.  Cold case investigators who re-opened the case earlier this year became suspicious when looking through the case file.  After two weeks of trailing Lazarus and hunting for DNA samples, a detective was able to take a sample from a discarded plastic eating utensil and match Lazarus’s DNA with samples left in bite marks at the scene of the murder.  Lazarus, who was a young beat patrol officer at the time of the slaying, has pleaded not guilty and is being held without bail until her trial. 

In Los Angeles murder is, quite possibly, the most serious of all criminal offenses, with correspondingly serious consequences if convicted.  Murder itself is, for legal purposes, divided into several categories:  first-degree, second-degree and voluntary or involuntary manslaughter.  First-degree murder can generally see you sent to prison for 25 years to life and is generally thought of as the willful, deliberate and premeditated killing of another person.  This includes murder while committing another crime such as robbery, carjacking, arson and kidnapping.  Second-degree murder differs from first-degree murder in that the murder was not deliberate and was not premeditated. 

Examples of this would be firing a gun in a crowded room and accidentally killing someone, or a fight with a deadly weapon that results in death.  Second-degree murder is generally awarded a 15 years to life in prison sentence in the case of a conviction.  Voluntary manslaughter is another form of murder in which someone acts in a “heat of passion,” in response to what is a legally acceptable provocation.  Voluntary manslaughter, which is generally punished by three to 11 years in a state prison, occurs, for example, when you attack and kill someone who is attacking your child.  Involuntary manslaughter is murder that is not intentional, but is generally the result of extremely reckless behavior.  An example of involuntary manslaughter would be a death that results from speeding or driving recklessly.  In general, involuntary manslaughter can send you to prison for between two to four years. 

If you have been charged with a Los Angeles murder in any form, call the attorneys at Stephen G. Rodriguez & Associates today.  Our years of experience in defending against murder charges in Los Angeles will fight for you.