LOS ANGELES -- An 18-year-old who reportedly led police to the prime suspect in the so-called Freeway Killer case was charged Tuesday with the robbery and murder of one of the 40 or more victims.
Because he was a juvenile at the time of the crime, the youth's name was not released.
Arraignment was scheduled Wednesday.
The suspect is believed to be the youth who first led police to William Bonin, 34, a former truck driver who is charged with 14 of the Freeway Killer stranglings, including the one the latest suspect is accused of, the slaying of Harry Turner, 15, in March 1980.
Another young man, Eric Wijnaendts, 20, had been charged with Turner's murder but prosecutors dropped the charges last week because they said there was new evidence to show he was not guilty.
Two other suspects, James M. Munro and Gregroy M. Miley, both 19, also have been charged with some of the slayings and a fifth defendant, Vernon Butts, 23, committed suicide in jail Jan. 11.
The Freeway Killer murders claimed up to 40 victims since 1972, all young men and boys, most of whom were strangled and sexually mutilated. Their bodies were found along or near freeways in Southern California.
