Los Angeles Police Department detectives have arrested two men and a woman for a triple murder in February in a gated Porter Ranch community.
“It was a business dispute related to the illegal drug trade,” said LAPD Robbery Homicide Division Capt. William Hayes.
He said detectives had Kenneth Peterson arrested yesterday in Durham, North Carolina. Booking records showed he was being held as an out of state fugitive pending extradition, as well as on local allegations of cocaine trafficking and possession of drug paraphernalia.
According to LA County court records Peterson and another man named Travis Llewellyn Reid were each charged yesterday with three counts of murder.
A woman named Chaquetta Charmian Cook was charged with one count of murder and one narcotics related count. Reid and Cook were arrested near Baltimore, Maryland and were awaiting extradition to Los Angeles.
LAPD officers were called to the large home on Via Galileo in Porter Ranch’s Renaissance community just before 4 p.m. on Monday, February 18. Three men were found dead inside; all had been shot to death.
The victims were identified by authorities as Gary Davidson, 39, the man who rented the home, and two visitors, Benny Lopez, 46, of Anaheim, and Jesus Perez, 34, of Perris.
Hayes said Davidson was involved in trafficking drugs from Los Angeles to Baltimore. He declined to speculate on the purpose of the February 18 visit from Peterson, Reid, and Cook, though several law enforcement sources told NBC4 the investigators believe the trio may have traveled to Southern California for the specific purpose of committing a crime in the home.
In addition to the men who were killed, a woman was at the residence in an upstairs bedroom, Hayes said in February. She placed the emergency call after hearing a gunshot, she told police. The woman lived in the house with Davidson.
