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UCLA Student Was Stabbed Before Her Apartment Was Set On Fire, Police Say
Investigators believe that UCLA student Andrea DelVesco was stabbed to death during a burglary before her apartment was set on fire.Albert Hinojosa Medina, 22, and Eric Marquez, also 22, have been charged with murdering 21-year-old Andrea DelVesco, a Spanish and Psychology senior at UCLA who was found dead after firefighters extinguished a blaze in her Westwood apartment. Police believe Medina first burgled another apartment nearby, then entered DelVesco's apartment, where he stabbed her to death and then lit her apartment on fire, according to a release from the L.A. District Attorney's Office.
Medina has been charged with one count of capital murder with the special circumstance of murder during a burglary, one count of arson and two counts of first-degree burglary. If convicted, Medina could face the death penalty. Marquez has been charged with one count of murder and two counts of first-degree burglary. They will be arraigned today at 2 p.m.
It is unclear if Marquez or Medina knew DelVesco, but Marquez also attended UCLA where he studied biology. Marquez's family said that they saw him on Sunday and he acted as though nothing was out of the ordinary, according to the L.A. Times. Marquez's mother called her son a "perfect person" and said she doesn't believe he committed the crime. Medina's father, Jose Medina, told the Times, "[My son] told me that he didn't do it."
DelVesco was found dead in her apartment at 10954 Roebling Ave. in Westwood last Monday morning after firefighters responded to reports of a blaze in the two-story building just after 7 a.m. DelVesco was facing drug charges for possession of LSD, Ecstasy, methamphetamine and mushrooms, which led some to speculate that her death may have been related to those charges.
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