Serial killer charged in 4 more deaths

LOS ANGELES, Feb. 2 (UPI) -- A convicted Los Angeles serial killer was charged with strangling four more women after DNA testing allegedly linked him to the slayings, officials said.

The new charges were filed against Chester Dewayne Turner, 44, after a DNA test connected him to the 1997 killing of Cynthia Annette Johnson, the Los Angeles Times reported Wednesday.

The evidence came to light when a police department criminal specialist accidentally included Turner's DNA evidence in the closed Johnson case as part of the department's effort to cut down the backlog of untested sexual assault kits, Detective Cliff Shepard said.

The other three murder counts pertain to slayings in which officials long suspected Turner but never filed charges against him, the Times reported.

In two cases, another man spent 11 years in prison until he was released in 2004, when DNA linked Turner to the killings. In the fourth case, DNA linked Turner to the slaying after he was charged with multiple killings in 2004. All four of the victims were strangled.

Turner had been sentenced to death in 2007 for murdering 10 women.

"He needs to be held accountable for what he did. It's very important for everyone in the city, particularly those in South LA, that the justice system does value the lives of people killed," said Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorney Robert Grace.