A man arrested in connection with the discovery of a body found inside a 55-gallon drum on a Malibu beach has been charged with murder.
Joshua Lee Simmons, 37, was one of two men arrested Oct. 3, about three months after the barrel was found at Malibu Lagoon State Beach with the body of 32-year-old Javonnta Marshann Murphy inside. A second man was charged with being an accessory after the fact.
The drum was found by a lifeguard who reported the discovery to the sheriff's department. Deputies pulled the barrel ashore and found the body inside.
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Sheriff's homicide investigators determined that Murphy was shot and killed, then placed inside the barrel.
The murder charge includes an allegation that Simmons personally used a handgun during the commission of the crime.
He also ischarged with three counts of criminal threats involving separate victims on July 27 and Sept. 2, along with one count of attempted robbery Sept. 2 in El Monte. The criminal complaint alleges that he personally used bear repellent spray during the crimes in September, and that he had prior convictions from 2006 for grand theft of a firearm and 2008 for first-degree burglary.
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Simmons was arrested Oct. 3. He has remained in custody since then in lieu of more than $3.2 million bail, according to jail records.
A second defendant, Dennis Eugene Vance, 41, is charged with a felony count of being an accessory after the fact. He is free on bond while awaiting arraignment next week, jail records show.
The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department noted in a statement that the motive for the killing remains unknown, but that the suspects knew the victim.
