Derrick Todd Lee

Case record: State of Louisiana v. Derrick Todd Lee

Name and identity

Derrick Todd Lee was born in 1968 in St. Francisville, Louisiana, USA. He was dubbed the Baton Rouge Serial Killer.

Alleged criminal conduct and links by DNA

Derrick Todd Lee was linked by DNA to the deaths of seven women in the Baton Rouge and Lafayette areas in Louisiana. Newspapers suggested a link with other unsolved murders in the area, but the police lacked DNA evidence to prove these connections. The murder method varied with nearly each case. Similarities between the crimes included the removal of phones from the victim's belongings and the lack of forced entry. Most murders were committed in the area around Louisiana State University (LSU), with two of the bodies being found in Whiskey Bay. Public hysteria created many rumors and false suspect reports in the area.

Previously, the suspect was believed to be a white man driving a white pickup truck. New evidence pointed to an African-American man from the Breaux Bridge area driving a gold 1997 Mitsubishi Mirage who was also wanted in connection with an attempted rape.

Investigation and forensic evidence

During the last week of May 2003, DNA swabs taken from a West Feliciana Parish man who resembled the most recent composite of the suspect were rushed to the crime labs for analysis. The lab technician processing the samples realized there was a positive match between the suspect's DNA and samples taken from Carrie Lynn Yoder. Technicians were able to further link the suspect to three more murders attributed to the suspected Baton Rouge serial killer.

After Lee was taken into police custody, police with the help of the FBI immediately focused on locating his estranged wife Jacqueline and the couple's two children. Investigators hoped Jacqueline could provide clues into Lee's behavior and whereabouts during the crimes, and family members suspected she was hiding out of fear. Family members of Jacqueline Denise Lee claimed she lived in denial of her husband's transgressions, which included stalking, peeping into windows, and infidelity. Jacqueline's aunt claimed she was afraid of her husband and that, against her wishes, a mistress had moved into their home. Initially, Jacqueline and the couple's two children could not be traced. Eventually in June 2003, the FBI located the three in Chicago. Investigators were interested in Jacqueline not only for questioning purposes but also because they needed her consent before they could begin digging up the property of her former residence.

Timeline

• Last week of May 2003 — DNA swabs were rushed to crime labs for analysis; a positive match was recognized between the suspect's DNA and samples taken from Carrie Lynn Yoder.
• May 2003 — Lee was captured in Atlanta, Georgia.
• May 26, 2003 — Police issued an arrest warrant for Lee; he fled to Chicago and then Atlanta to escape murder charges.
• May 27, 2003 — Atlanta police apprehended Lee at a hotel where he was lodging.
• Following day after May 27, 2003 — Lee was flown back to Louisiana after waiving extradition.
• Early June 2003 — Lee was accused of the rape and murder of Green, Pace, Kinamore, and Colomb based on DNA evidence linking him to the crimes.
• June 2003 — The FBI located Jacqueline and the couple's two children in Chicago.
• August 2004 — Lee was tried for the murder of Geralyn DeSoto.
• August 5, 2004 — Opening arguments in the first trial against serial killings suspect Derrick Todd Lee began in Port Allen, Louisiana.
• August 6, 2004 — Lee complained about his public defender; the husband of a woman prosecutors believed was slain described how he found his wife in their mobile home with her throat cut.
• August 9, 2004 — Prosecutors rested their case after a day of testimony featuring Lee's 15-year-old son who identified a set of bloody boots linked to the murder of Geralyn DeSoto.
• October 12, 2004 — A Baton Rouge jury found Lee guilty of capital murder in the death of Charlotte Murray Pace.
• October 14, 2004 — Lee was convicted for the May 31, 2002 rape and murder of LSU graduate student Charlotte Murray Pace.
• December 10, 2004 — Lee was sentenced to death.
• 2004 — Mari Ann Fowler was declared legally dead; Jacqueline and the couple's two children had been located earlier in June 2003.

Arrest and extradition

Police issued an arrest warrant for Lee on Monday 26, 2003. At the time the warrant was issued, Lee and his family had been gone for approximately three weeks. Police learned that on the day Lee voluntarily provided a DNA sample, his wife Jacqueline withdrew their young son and daughter from school, claiming they were moving to Los Angeles. The couple then packed their belongings and abandoned their brown-brick ranch style house on 4273 U.S. 61 in St. Francisville of West Feliciana Parish, La.

On May 27, 2003, Atlanta police working with a joint FBI-metropolitan Atlanta task force apprehended Lee at a hotel where he was lodging. Lee waived extradition and was flown back to Louisiana the following day.

Charges and accused cases

Initially, Lee was charged only with Carrie Lynn Yoder's murder. By early June, he was also accused of the rape and murder of Green, Pace, Kinamore, and Colomb based on DNA evidence linking him to the crimes.

Criminal history and prior incidents

Police learned that Lee had an extensive criminal history. Lee's youthful record included a string of juvenile offenses starting in 1984, when he was caught peeping into the home of a St. Francisville woman's home. As Lee grew older, his "rap sheet" became more extended, including arrests for attempted first-degree murder, stalking, peeping into homes, and break-ins and burglary, among other crimes.

The following arrests and related incidents between 1992 and 2001 were described:

• November 1992 — Lee was arrested for illegal entry and burglary of Zachary resident Rob Benge's house.
• January 1993 — Lee and his accomplice, Thomas Whitaker Jr., were arrested for breaking into the home of seventy-three-year-old Melvin Foster; Foster was beaten with a stick and robbed.
• July 1993 — Lee was sentenced to one year in prison for burglary.
• September 1995 — Lee was arrested for a peeping incident and resisting arrest; he was chased and caught by police after looking into the window of a woman. During the same month, Lee was arrested again for stealing from a Salvation Army Thrift Store.
• August 1997 — Lee was arrested after being caught looking into the windows of a woman.
• August 1999 — Lee was arrested after being caught in a woman's residence uninvited for being a peeping Tom and stalking.
• December 1999 — Lee received a suspended sentence on a misdemeanor stalking charge.
• January 2000 — Lee was accused of attempted first-degree murder after severely kicking and stomping his girlfriend Consandra Green at a bar after an argument over Lee's advances towards another woman. While trying to flee from police following the incident, he allegedly tried to run over the sheriff's deputy with a car. Lee was sentenced to two years for the incident.
• September 2001 — Lee was arrested for battery against wife, but charges later dismissed.

After the release of Lee's criminal history, residents of Baton Rouge were shocked that he was never suspected in the Baton Rouge murders, especially when the focus was changed to a man of color in March of 2003. The task force was criticized because Lee had been overlooked after having been brought to their attention by the Zachary Police Department in 2002. The Zachary Police suspected Lee in the murder of forty-one-year-old Connie Warner in 1992 and the disappearance of twenty-year-old Randi Mebruer in 1998. Despite mistakes made in the case, the task force was congratulated for their work in catching the killer.

Trial: murder of Geralyn DeSoto (second-degree murder trial)

Lee was tried in August 2004 for the murder of Geralyn DeSoto. DeSoto was found dead in her home in Addis, Louisiana, and was stabbed numerous times. DeSoto's husband was the primary suspect, but DNA evidence creating a possible link to Lee was discovered as the murder investigation progressed. Although eligible for first-degree murder charges, the District Attorney elected to try Lee for murder in the second degree because DeSoto was not sexually assaulted and thus a first-degree murder conviction would be harder to obtain.

A jury in Louisiana took less than two hours to find Lee guilty of second-degree murder in the 2002 beating and stabbing death of a 21-year-old woman in her Addis, La. home. Lee, 35, faced a mandatory life sentence in the death of Geralyn DeSoto, who was killed on the day that she registered to enter graduate school at LSU. Prosecution rested their case after a day of testimony featuring that of Lee's 15-year-old son who identified a set of bloody boots linked to the murder of Geralyn DeSoto.

Lee told a judge he was unhappy with the case being presented by his public defender. He said:

"This ain’t no fame and fortune to me," Lee said in court Friday. "My life is on the line."

The roommate of Charlotte Murray Pace described the bloody crime scene to jurors as they viewed more than 100 photographs of the scene.

On August 5, 2004, opening arguments began in Port Allen, Louisiana where Lee faced a second-degree murder charge in the death of Geralyn DeSoto, one of seven women Lee was suspected of killing.

On August 6, 2004, the husband of a woman prosecutors believed was slain by a serial killer described how he found his wife in their mobile home with her throat cut.

Trial outcome: Charlotte Murray Pace case (rape and murder; capital murder)

Lee was convicted on October 14, 2004 for the May 31, 2002 rape and murder of LSU graduate student Charlotte Murray Pace. The jury recommendation for the death sentence was made on Oct. 14, 2004 after a jury took 93 minutes to recommend the death sentence, rejecting expert defense witness testimony that Lee is mentally retarded. A Baton Rouge jury found Lee guilty of capital murder in the death of Charlotte Murray Pace on Oct. 12, 2004, taking less than 80 minutes after the defense rested without calling a single witness.

DNA evidence and witness identification were used in the trial for Charlotte Murray Pace:

• On Oct. 6, 2004, a Louisiana Police Crime Lab forensic analyst testified that when she first saw the DNA profile of Derrick Todd Lee she recognized it immediately because it was a unusual and she had seen it so many times before in investigations of five murder cases within 18 months.
• On Oct. 5, 2004, Louisiana State Police Crime Lab DNA analyst Julia Naylor told jurors that the chance that DNA evidence taken from the body of Charlotte Murray Pace belonged to someone other than defendant Derrick Todd Lee was once in 3.6 quadrillion.
• On Oct. 11, 2004, a woman who survived an attack by Derrick Todd Lee because her son came home unexpectedly identified Lee as the person who tried to rape her to jurors in his trial for the murder of Charlotte Murray Pace.

Victims described in the case

Geralyn DeSoto

Geralyn DeSoto was found dead in her home in Addis, Louisiana, and was stabbed numerous times. DeSoto was a 21-year-old woman. DeSoto was killed on the day she registered to enter graduate school at LSU.

Charlotte Murray Pace

Charlotte Murray Pace was an LSU graduate student. Lee was convicted for the May 31, 2002 rape and murder of Charlotte Murray Pace.

Mari Ann Fowler

Mari Ann Fowler was born in 1937 and was the wife of former Louisiana Elections Commissioner Jerry M. Fowler. Mrs. Fowler was abducted on Christmas eve 2002 from a sandwich shop in Port Allen in West Baton Rouge Parish. She was never found and was declared legally dead in 2004.

Sentencing

Lee was convicted and sentenced to life in prison without the benefit of parole for the murder of Geralyn DeSoto. He was sentenced to die by lethal injection for the May 31, 2002 rape and murder of Charlotte Murray Pace and was on death row at the Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola. Lee was sentenced to death on December 10, 2004.

Appeals

No appeal information was provided.

Aftermath and ongoing investigation

Investigators continued to seek evidence in the cases of other missing and murdered women in Louisiana and Mississippi to see if they could be linked to Lee's travels as a truck driver in the region. Public hysteria had created many rumors and false suspect reports in the area.