On Thursday, Sheriff’s deputies responded to a call from an undisclosed party reporting the need for a welfare check at Camp Pendleton. When they arrived they discovered the body of a 23-year-old mother of three in her Laguna Hills apartment who had been shot multiple times. The victim’s name remains confidential at this time as authorities had not yet notified her family.
Jerel Boykins, a 26-year-old U.S. Marine and the estranged husband of the victim was held as a suspect by authorities soon after his wife’s body was found. He was arrested as the alleged perpetrator the day after the shooting occurred.
Court records indicate the victim had filed for a restraining order early in September, and she submitted a detailed letter describing several occurrences where Boykins allegedly used physical violence or threats against her and other family members.
The woman’s letter made claims that in April Boykins took her phone from her and would not return it. When she tried to retrieve it she suffered an injury to her ankle when he forcibly pushed her onto a bed. She also accused Boykins of disrupting a family gathering in May, where he subjected her and her three children to verbal abuse and harassed both her father and her brother with the threat of a physical altercation. The police were called and they ordered him to depart from the event. Her letter also included that in August while Boykins was in school in South Carolina, he bombarded her with intimidating phone calls warning that upon his return he would kill her and keep her three children. She expressed that her biggest fear was that Boykin would follow through with his threats because he possesses a gun.
One week before the victim was killed the court issued a temporary restraining order against Boykins and set a court date of September 29th to consider the case further. A motive for the shooting has not been officially disclosed, and Boykins has no prior criminal record in Orange County. He is currently being held on $1 million bail in Orange County Jail.
If you or someone you love is suspected of murder, contact Orange County criminal defense lawyer Staycie R. Sena at (949) 477-8088 for a consultation now.