Leamon Turnage, 69

Died Oct. 22, 2010

Leamon Turnage, a 69-year-old white man, died Friday, Oct. 22, after he was found strangled in the 4100 block of West 142nd Street in Hawthorne, according to Los Angeles County coroner's records.

Turnage and his wife, Robyn Turnage, a 57-year-old white woman, were discovered dead inside their home by Hawthorne police officers conducting a welfare check.

The couple may have been killed during a home invasion robbery, said Lt. David Coleman of the L.A. County sheriff’s homicide bureau. Family members had attempted to reach the couple by phone for several days but when they could not, they called police, Coleman said.

A day after the Turnages were found, John Wesley Ewell was arrested and held on suspicion of killing the couple.

Authorities have a “mountain of evidence they are sifting through that connect him” to the slayings, said sheriff's spokesman Steve Whitmore.

Investigators also have evidence that may connect Ewell to a Sept. 24 home-invasion robbery several blocks away that left Hanna Morcos, an 80-year-old Middle Eastern man, dead, Whitmore said.

Morcos was found about 8:30 p.m. face down in his apartment in the 4100 block of West 137th Street. He had suffered blunt head trauma, said Ed Winter, a spokesman for the L.A. County coroner's office.

Ewell, a 53-year-old black man, is currently being held on $1-million bail, officials said. His next court appearance is scheduled Nov. 3 at the LAX Municipal Court.

— Ruben Vives and Stephen Ceasar

Photo: John Ewell. Credit: L.A. County Sheriff’s Department