Authorities in Los Angeles said this week they had finally assembled enough evidence to link the killing of a young father, shot while camping at Malibu Creek State Park, to the arrest of a reputed serial burglar, caught last October in a steep, brush-covered ravine near the park while armed with a rifle.
A criminal complaint expecte to a be filed Monday charges Anthony Rauda with the June 22 murder of Tristan Beaudette, 35, who was hit with a single shot while his young daughters slept beside him.
Multiple law enforcement sources familiar with the investigation told NBC4 Rauda, 42, would also face nine counts of attempted murder for a series of other peculiar gunfire attacks in the area of the park and Las Virgenes Road, and multiple counts of burglary for break-ins in the same area over the last few years.
An official announcement was expected before noon Monday.
Prosecutors were only able to file the case after a forensic comparison of bullets linked several shootings, including the murder, with the gun Rauda was allegedly carrying when he was arrested. That ballistic comparison was completed in early October but the case took many more weeks to assemble, according to the sources.
They also said evidence shows Rauda is also responsible for additional shootings and burglaries for which not enough evidence was found for prosecution, including an until-now unsolved shooting of a woman driving on Thousand Oaks Boulevard in Ventura County in 2010. Rauda has been tied to thefts and violence in LA, Ventura and Sonoma counties.
“It’s a 10-year crime spree that could make a Hollywood movie,” said one detective familiar with the case who was not authorized to speak publicly about the investigation.
Rauda has been serving a sentence in LA County jail for violating the terms of Post Release Conviction Supervision, or PRCS, as a result of his arrest in October in the Malibu burglaries. That sentence was expected to be satisfied in the next week, according to court and jail records.
Detectives from the LA County Sheriff’s Department’s Major Crimes Bureau caught Rauda Oct. 10 near the park. Rauda was carrying the gun and two loaded magazines, according to testimony at a recent PRCS violation hearing.
A key break in the Malibu Creek State Park death investigation came less than two weeks before that when a security camera system recorded images of a man wearing a headlamp and “tactical style” clothing during an office break-in.
As the figure in the video moved into view it was clear the man had a rifle slung over his left shoulder. Some of the images, not shown publicly, captured detailed views of the gun.
Detectives compared the security video with firearms catalog photos and soon confirmed the gun carried by the burglar was a 9mm carbine, a weapon capable of firing the same caliber bullet that killed Beaudette.
Photo Credit: KNBC-TV
Source: NBC Los Angeles