Ugly mugged sex offender Charles Patrick Drew has been indicted for the special circumstances murder of a 29-year-old woman in the course of raping her in a Stanton motel room in June of last year. Drew, 63, who has two prior strike convictions from 1995 for forcible rape and assault with a deadly weapon, faces life in state prison without the possibility of parole, although the special circumstances allegation also makes him eligible for the death penalty.
On March 19, 2012, Drew walked outside of his room at the Motel 6 in Stanton and asked someone to call 9-1-1 because a woman inside was unresponsive. Orange County sheriff's deputies responded and launched an investigation that would conclude Drew brutally raped, sodomized and forced oral copulation with Amber Oceja while she was unconscious. She later died, and Drew was further accused of trying to remove evidence from a crime scene.
He was arrested, charged and held without bail after the discovery, but by having the Orange County Grady Jury indict Drew Thursday, the process of trying him can move more quickly.
Drew is charged with one felony count of special circumstances murder in the commission of rape, sodomy, oral copulation, and sexual penetration by foreign object, one felony count each of rape of an unconscious person, sodomy of unconscious victim, oral copulation of unconscious person, sexual penetration by foreign object of unconscious victim, and assault with a deadly weapon. A pre-trial trial setting conference is scheduled June 7 in Santa Ana.
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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.