Suspected California serial killer to face judge on murder charges in Stockton slayings

Wesley Brownlee will be arraigned in a Stockton courtroom Tuesday in the serial killings that terrorized the city and grabbed national headlines.

Brownlee will be arraigned 1:30 p.m. at San Joaquin Superior Court in Stockton.

Stockton police say the 43-year-old Brownlee is the man who gunned down six people in the city and his native Oakland, and riddled another with bullets aside railroad tracks in downtown Stockton. The female victim, Natasha Latour, survived her attack last year and has since come forward with her brush with death.

Police say he was on the hunt for his next victim when he was taken into custody.

“We are sure we stopped another killing,” McFadden said at the weekend news conference that announced Brownlee’s arrest. McFadden said Brownlee was seen driving near Village Green Drive and Winslow Way about 2 a.m. Saturday. He was clad in black clothes and wore a mask around his neck, both similar to video images captured in one of the killings. Brownlee was armed when he was arrested.

“He was on a mission to kill. He was out hunting,” McFadden told reporters.

The San Joaquin County Office of the Medical Examiner identified the Stockton victims as Paul Yaw, 35, who died July 8; Salvador Debudey Jr., 43, who died Aug. 11; Jonathan Hernandez Rodriguez, 21, who died Aug. 30; Juan Cruz, 52, who died Sept. 21; and Lawrence Lopez Sr., 54, who died Sept. 27.

The first killing targeted Juan Vasquez Serrano, 39, in Oakland around 4:15 a.m. on April 10, 2021. He was shot multiple times, according to the Alameda County coroner’s bureau. It was not immediately clear if he was alone when he was killed.

San Joaquin County District Attorney’s officials said the investigation into the serial shootings is ongoing.

San Joaquin County District Attorney Tori Verber-Salazar will lead a 2:15 p.m. news conference at the District Attorney’s Offices, 222 E. Weber St., following the hearing. She will be joined by Stockton Police Chief Stanley McFadden and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms Acting Agent-in-Charge Joshua Jackson.

The Stockton man was raised in the Bay Area and left behind years of arrests and convictions in Alameda County before his Saturday arrest in the serial killing spree that has him facing murder charges, court records show.

Brownlee’s crimes date back to a 1997 conviction and sentencing in Alameda Superior Court for possession of a controlled substance, according to Alameda County District Attorney’s officials. Brownlee was sentenced to two years in state prison and three years’ formal probation.

More court dates and more violations followed in 1999 and 2011; and in 2014, he returned to an Oakland courtroom again on drug charges.

He was sentenced in Alameda Superior Court later that year to 16 days in jail and five years’ formal probation for possession for sale of a controlled substance, according to Alameda County prosecutors. Brownlee’s probation ended in April 2017, District Attorney’s officials said.

This story was originally published October 18, 2022 at 9:42 AM.

Darrell Smith

The Sacramento Bee

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Darrell Smith is a local reporter for The Sacramento Bee. He joined The Bee in 2006 and previously worked at newspapers in Palm Springs, Colorado Springs and Marysville. Smith was born and raised at Beale Air Force Base and lives in Elk Grove.