State prison inmate pleads guilty in 1973 murder of 86-year-old widow

By: North County Times wire services - | Wednesday, January 16, 2008 8:31 PM PST ∞

LOS ANGELES -- A state prison inmate pleaded guilty today to second- degree murder for the beating death of an 86-year-old widow at her South Los Angeles home nearly 35 years ago.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge C.H. Rehm immediately sentenced Jesse Clifton Wimberly Jr., now 54, to five years to life in state prison.

The term was based on sentencing standards in place at the time of Anna Lockner's Feb. 10, 1973, slaying, according to Shiara Davila of the District Attorney's Office.

Wimberly was serving time in state prison on an unrelated 1974 case for kidnapping for robbery and rape when he was charged last year with the killing, according to Davila.

The elderly woman was beaten by two men who broke down the front door of her residence. A neighbor saw her open front door the next morning and called police.

Before she died, Lockner was able to tell police that two men kicked in her front door and took $15 from her underclothing.

Fingerprints were recovered at the scene, but law enforcement did not have the computerized technology available at the time to identify the prints.

The case later went to the Los Angeles Police Department's Cold Case Unit, which submitted the fingerprints along with prints from about 75 unsolved murder cases to the LAPD's Scientific Investigation Division.

Wimberly was identified through prints run through the Automated Fingerprint Identification System.

A second man believed to have been with Wimberly when Lockner was slain was killed a few years ago, authorities said.

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