GUILTY CA - Raven Campbell, 31, Lomita, 4 June 2009 *Arrest*

[JusticeWillBeServed]

Testimony: Man killed woman with hammer, hid her body under Lomita apartment

http://www.dailybreeze.com/general-news/20161208/testimony-man-killed-woman-with-hammer-hid-her-body-under-lomita-apartment

A former Lomita man was ordered Thursday to stand trial for allegedly smacking a developmentally disabled woman in the head with a hammer, wrapping her lifeless body in plastic and burying her in a makeshift grave beneath the floor of their apartment, where she remained a missing person for six years.

Randolph Garbutt, 44, a construction worker who lived in Apartment 507 at the Harbor Hills housing project with Raven Joy Campbell, 31, told a friend, “God wanted her” as he enlisted her to help nudge Campbell’s body toward a hole he had cut into a closet wall to reach a vault below the structure.

“He said he hit her with a hammer,” Myesha Smith testified during a two-day preliminary hearing in Torrance Superior Court. “He hit her one time and she kind of fought for her life and he hit her again. ... He said, ‘God wanted her.’ ”

Campbell’s family members had heard many of the details of what was revealed in court before the hearing, so the testimony was not a shock. Kemp, however, said it was stunning to learn police had recovered Campbell’s belongings from Smith a month after her disappearance, and apparently not done anything or told her family, which agonized for years not knowing if she was alive or dead.

“Why would you do that?” Kemp said.

Judge Hector Guzman ruled sufficient evidence exists to warrant trial for Garbutt, who was ordered to appear for arraignment Dec. 27 on a single count of murder. He was held on $1 million bail.

 

[JusticeWillBeServed]

Man Pleads Not Guilty in Bludgeoning Death of Lomita Woman

http://patch.com/california/palosverdes/man-pleads-not-guilty-bludgeoning-death-lomita-woman

A man pleaded not guilty Tuesday to the bludgeoning death of a woman whose remains were found behind a wall in a Lomita housing project apartment last year, just over six years after she disappeared.

Randolph Garbutt, 44, was ordered to stand trial earlier this month in connection with the killing of 37-year-old Raven Campbell.

Garbutt -- who remains jailed -- is due back in a Torrance courtroom Jan. 31 for a pretrial hearing.

 

[JusticeWillBeServed]

https://www.dailybreeze.com/2017/12/31/high-profile-south-bay-cases-set-for-busy-2018-court-calendar/

Randolph Garbutt — The former Lomita man is charged with murder for allegedly striking a developmentally disabled woman in the head with a hammer, wrapping her body in plastic and burying her in a makeshift grave beneath the floor of their apartment, where she remained a missing person for six years. Raven Joy Campbell, 31, was last seen June 4, 2009. Coroner’s investigators and sheriff’s detectives found her body July 15, 2015, under the floor of the apartment at the Harbor Hills housing project at Palos Verdes Drive North and Western Avenue. Next court date: Jan. 9, pretrial conference, Torrance courthouse

 

[JerseyGirl]

Trial begins for man charged with killing woman, burying her under floor in Lomita apartment – Daily Breeze

 

[JerseyGirl]

From November 2018:

A mistrial has been declared in the murder case against a man accused of beating his developmentally disabled roommate to death with a hammer and hiding her body under the floor of their Lomita apartment, where she remained missing for six years.

Attorneys will return Dec. 4 to discuss setting a date for a new trial.

 

[iulia]

Man sentenced in 2009 killing of roommate whose remains found in wall 6 years later

A California man has been sentenced to 11 years in prison for the hammer killing of his former roommate, whose body was found stuffed into a wall in their former apartment six years after she was reported missing.

Randolph Eric Garbutt, 47, of Los Angeles, pleaded no contest last month to voluntary manslaughter in the 2009 slaying of Raven Joy Campbell, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office. He was sentenced to prison on Tuesday.