A 32-year-old man was charged Tuesday with capital murder in the killings of two women whose bodies were found on the side of a freeway six years ago.
Geovanni Borjas was charged with two counts each of murder and forcible rape, and one count of kidnapping, Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office Public Information Officer Greg Risling said in a press release.
The two slayings were not initially considered connected, but investigators later determined the same person likely killed 22-year-old Bree'Anna Guzman and 17-year-old Michelle Lozano.
"Today, Michelle and Bree'Anna's friends and family are finally within reach of some of the justice that they and this city deserve," said Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti at a Los Angeles Police Department press conference.
Guzman's body was found by a Caltrans crew on Jan. 26, 2012 near the Riverside Drive entrance ramp to the southbound Glendale Freeway in Silver Lake. A homeless man discovered Lozano's body covered in plastic April 25, 2011 on the side of the 5 Freeway near the downtown Los Angeles Cesar Chavez Avenue exit.
“Michelle was murdered, she was sexually assaulted and she was discarded,” said LAPD Chief Charlie Beck. "(Guzman's) body was also discovered after being sexually assaulted in the area of Lincoln Heights."
Guzman had been reported missing from the Lincoln Heights area. Lozano was abducted from Lincoln High School, also in the Lincoln Heights area northeast of downtown Los Angeles, a day before her body was found.
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"I'm trying not to break down, but it's hard," Ricardo Duran, Guzman's father, said, sobbing. "I want to thank the LAPD, all the efforts they did to catch this monster and get him off the street."
If convicted, Borjas faces the death penalty or life in prison without the possibility of parole, Risling said.
