By Melina Paris, Staff Reporter
San Pedro — Random Lengths News learned that a second suspect was arrested on Aug. 4, in the murder case of San Pedro resident, Walter (Wally) Crespo, pictured above, who was fatally shot on June 11. The arrest was confirmed after weeks of stonewalling by the Los Angeles Police Department Harbor Area Homicide Detectives and after an accessory to the same crime, Carol Bodman, was arrested, June 28.
The accused, Juan Martinez is charged with homicide. It was reported by LAPD Harbor Area Homicide Detectives that Martinez is an alleged Rancho San Pedro gang member.
Preliminary hearings for both Martinez and Bodman, are scheduled for Oct. 25, at the Gov. George Deukmejian Courthouse in Long Beach. Bodman is charged with a felony, accessory after the fact/ knowledge of a crime or murder. Both suspects are still in custody.
During the time leading up to our July 25 story, RLN dove into the details of this case. After making repeated phone calls and doing online searches, on June 23 the Harbor Area LAPD told RLN they did not have any leads on who killed Wally. However, Wally’s mother said that they went to court July 10, and a suspect was brought out.
The suspect was arrested for a felony, June 28. Wally’s mother, Cindy Hebert, said there were “no offers on the table.” They would return to court about one month after Wally died. As of July 19, a suspect was in custody with $1.04 million bail with a court date scheduled for Aug. 22.
This paper first reported the homicide of Wally Crespo on July 12, along with three other unrelated murders that occurred in San Pedro in June. Wally is survived by his mother and two daughters. With help from Wally’s mother and one of his best friends, Eddie Baca, RLN also followed up with a story about who Wally was in this community where so many people knew him.
As previously reported, Wally’s mother and his sister now share the responsibility of taking care of Wally’s daughters. His friend, Baca said that Wally had high hopes and he pursued his goals. He was “a lifelong work in progress.” Wally had four years of sobriety and recently, he had acquired full custody of his 16-year-old daughter.
Wally’s mother said that he was a compassionate son who always tried to meet her needs. She recalled receiving a card from a police officer who didn’t know her son personally, after Wally’s funeral services. However, the officer wrote, when he saw Wally, “He was picking up trash, he was concerned about things in his community and he was doing something almost every time he would see him.”
Hebert said she was overwhelmed with people coming up to her. She didn’t realize Wally knew that many people.
“I don’t even think he realized it,” she said. “He thought he was alone but he wasn’t. A lot of people reached out.”
Wally was laid to rest on June 26, followed by a funeral service at McNerney’s Mortuary Chapel in San Pedro.
Read more on Wally Crespo at https://www.randomlengthsnews.com/?s=Walter+Crespo