See Update No. 2 at the end of this post with the DA's office alleging Oscar Morlett used “a type of axe” to kill his step-mother, Jeanne Ellen Morlett. Update No. 1 I.D.'s the suspected killer and victim.
ORIGINAL POST, AUG. 9, 2:12 P.M.: Homicide detectives have been called to a residence in Lake Forest where sheriff's deputies responding to an 11:18 a.m. disturbance call found a body.
No other details about the deceased adult have been released, other than investigators have deemed this a “suspicious death investigation.”
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The call came from a residence on Blazewood, which is near Portola and Alton parkways.
We'll update when we know more.
UPDATE NO. 1, AUG. 10, 11:57 A.M.: An arrest has been made in the stabbing death of a woman tentatively identified as Jeanne Ellen Morlett, 66, of Foothill Ranch.
Her unemployed 21-year-old stepson, Oscar Luis Morlett, was detained about 2 miles from where the woman's body was found Friday morning, and he was subsequently arrested on suspicion of murder and booked into Orange County Jail on $1 million bail.
Official identification of the victim is pending from the county coroner, according to the Orange County Sheriff's Department, which adds there are no other suspects in her slaying.
UPDATE NO. 2, AUG. 12, 5:14 P.M.: In a statement on the arraignment of Oscar Luis Morlett III, the Orange County District Attorney's office discloses the Lake Forest 21-year-old is accused of “using a type of axe to kill his 66-year-old stepmom.”
He was charged today with one felony count of murder with a sentencing enhancement for the personal use of a deadly weapon, and he faces up to 26 years to life in state prison with a conviction.
Morlett, who is being held in lieu of $1 million bail, is scheduled to be arraigned Tuesday morning in Santa Ana. City News Service, citing court records. reports that before his murder arrest, he had been due in court today on misdemeanor charges of carrying a dirk or dagger, possession of a deadly weapon, a leaded cane, and having a passenger under 21 in possession of alcohol in a vehicle. Those counts filed in June are to be considered at Tuesday's arraignment hearing.
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OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.