Brother killed pregnant woman and set body on fire in Fresno alley, police say
Two days before her body was found burning in a Fresno alley, N-Kya Rebecca Logan was having a baby shower.
The 26-year-old was about 36 weeks pregnant with a boy, whom she planned to name Noah.
But on Tuesday, authorities said, that future for mother and son was wiped out in a grisly killing at the hands of her brother.
Aaron Jamal Dudley, 41, was arrested in connection with the killing, accused of stabbing Logan to death before taking her body to an alley and setting it on fire, Fresno Police Chief Paco Balderrama said Wednesday at a news conference with Dist. Atty. Lisa Smittcamp and other officials.
The investigation began around 12:30 p.m. Tuesday when someone reported seeing a body on fire in an unpaved alley near the 4400 block of North Cornelia Avenue, Balderrama said.
Detectives named Dudley as the suspect after recovering evidence and information including a bystander’s picture they believe shows Dudley standing over Logan’s body and surveillance footage showing him pushing a trash bin they believe contained the body, Balderrama said.
The CHP commander’s death comes two days after a California man was arrested in connection with the slaying of her husband, with whom she was in divorce proceedings, according to police records.
Dudley was arrested while trying to flee the home he shared with his mother and Logan, Balderrama said. Detectives had gone to the home after getting a search warrant.
“He ran from police, which is something very typical of a guilty person,” the chief said.
Dudley was booked at 5:43 p.m. Wednesday, according to Fresno County Sheriff’s Office jail records.
Police had previously been called to the home on July 28, 2021, when someone called to report that Dudley was a threat to himself or others, Balderrama said. He was placed on an involuntary 72-hour psychiatric detention.
Still, the chief said he believed Dudley would be competent to stand trial.
“This is a person who had the wherewithal to try to clean up the evidence, try to dispose of the body, ran when police came to knock on the door to see what was going on,” Balderrama said. “This is not somebody who does not know what he’s doing.”
Authorities said they believe Logan and her unborn child died of stab wounds, but released few other details Wednesday.
Asked what type of weapon was used, Balderrama said “an edged weapon such as a knife,” but he declined to specify.
Five people were killed. The charges filed against the driver underscore a controversy in California’s fetal homicide law.
Smittcamp said her office intends to charge Dudley with two counts of murder with special circumstances, which could make him subject to the death penalty or life in prison without the possibility of parole.
“A third-party killing of a fetus with [premeditation] is murder as long as it can be shown that the fetus had progressed beyond the embryonic stage … seven to eight weeks,” she said.
A fetus’ viability outside of the womb “is not an element of the crime in order to prove a fetal murder,” Smittcamp said.
The case has not yet been presented to the district attorney’s office.
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