Banning man accused of sexually assaulting, killing young woman arraigned
A man accused of killing an 18-year-old Riverside woman during a planned sexual assault, then abusing her remains, pleaded not guilty today to first-degree murder and other charges.
Dezman Markell Hunter, 19, of Banning was arrested earlier this month following a weeks-long investigation by the Riverside Police Department into the slaying of Mandeep Kaur.
Along with murder, Hunter is charged with special circumstance allegations of lying in wait and killing in the course of a rape, as well as a charge of mutilating or having sexual contact with a corpse.
He was arraigned before Riverside County Superior Court Judge Gail O'Rane, who scheduled a felony settlement conference for Sept. 16 at the Riverside Hall of Justice.
The defendant is being held without bail at the Robert Presley Jail in Riverside.
According to police, the alleged attack occurred on the morning of March 16 in the 1000 block of Spruce Street, a few blocks north of the UC Riverside campus.
Officer Javier Cabrera said that Kaur was killed in an apartment and discovered later, but the cause of her death and other circumstances weren't initially clear to police.
The matter was turned over to homicide detectives, who spent the ensuing weeks analyzing evidence and researching other details, receiving assistance from FBI forensics experts and U.S. Marshals, according to Cabrera.
Based on their findings, investigators ultimately identified Hunter as the alleged perpetrator, the police spokesman said.
The defendant was tracked down and arrested without incident on the afternoon of May 5 at his residence on East Nicolett Street.
Why and how Hunter allegedly targeted Kaur was not disclosed.
The apartment complex where she was killed is a half-mile from UCR, but it is an off-campus facility, so it was unclear whether she was a student attending classes at the university. Campus officials told City News Service that several enrollees have the same name, but they couldn't confirm whether the victim was one of them.
Hunter has no documented prior felony or misdemeanor convictions in Riverside County.
