OAKLAND — Three months after he was arrested in connection with two decades-old Bay Area killings and a 2021 sexual assault, a Fairfield man has been charged with murdering his mother-in-law during a sexual assault at her Union City home.
James Ray Gary, 76, was charged with one count of murder with enhancements alleging the crime was committed during a rape, against a “vulnerable” victim, and that the defendant was in a position of trust. Earlier this month Gary was transferred from the Solano County jail — where he faces a murder charge for a 1996 killing — to Santa Rita Jail in Dublin. He is scheduled to appear in court on Nov. 9.
Gary was arrested last July after a 2021 sexual assault case led to breaks in two cold case homicide investigations, the 1980 killing of 46-year-old Latrelle Lindsay and the 1996 killing of Winifred Douglas, also 46, in Vallejo. Seminal fluid was recovered from both crime scenes but wasn’t linked to Gary until 2021, when a Solano County woman accused him of raping her, according to court records.
Alameda County prosecutors will get the first crack at Gary. After he’s convicted, acquitted, or takes a plea deal, he’ll be transferred back to Solano County to face a charge of murdering Douglas, authorities said.
Lindsay, a Union City resident and laboratory assistant at Merritt College, was beaten and strangled inside of her home. Lindsay’s body was discovered by her daughter, Gary’s then-wife, on July 27, 1980, the Oakland Tribune reported. At the time, Gary lived in San Ramon, according to public records.
The Oakland Tribune reported at the time that the killer apparently switched off Lindsay’s electricity before entering the home. The newspaper reported that over the past year, Lindsay’s home had been vandalized repeatedly; someone poured sugar in her gas tank, cut down her tree, broke windows at the home, and slashed her tires, among other things.
Police say Lindsay’s body was partially nude and her head was wrapped in blankets. The DNA test confirmed the presence of Gary’s sperm at the scene to a factor of one in 30 nillion — that’s a 30 followed by 54 zeros — according to police.
When Gary was interviewed, “He was adamant he was not involved in victim’s murder, denied committing the crime and denied the semen located at the scene belonged to him,” a Union City detective wrote in court papers.
Douglas is described in court records as a sex worker who lived in Berkeley and Oakland. It is unknown what connection, if any, she had to Gary. She too was beaten and strangled, and her body was left by the side of Interstate 780 near Laurel Street in Vallejo.
Solano County Sheriff’s investigators contacted Gary and obtained his DNA after the 2021 sexual assault report, then matched it to all three crimes, authorities said.
Gary’s wife filed for divorce in 1985, according to court records.
Source: www.mercurynews.com