A reality facing those looking for answers after a Dec. 31 shooting murder in a quiet residential Valencia neighborhood is the same for investigators, suspects and victims: the waiting game.
While homicides represent the highest-priority crime for the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, the detectives trying to piece together evidence from the 8-month-old crime on Vista Fairways are still waiting for evidence to be processed.
When asked Monday, Lt. Mike Modica of the Homicide Bureau, team leader for the investigation, declined to state whether the evidence being tested involved identifying blood, DNA or bullet-shell casings, but all such evidence is generally processed in-house at the Sheriff’s Department’s crime lab.
There are certain special circumstances where the department is able to use external resources in an emergency, he said, but those are reserved for extreme circumstances.
As an example, he indicated those types of facilities can cost taxpayers hundreds of dollars per shell casing from a private lab.
In the meantime, there have been no arrests involving the shooting death of 37-year-old Devin Marshall, according to investigators.
Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station deputies responded to the 25700 block of Vista Fairways Drive, near Vista Valencia Golf Course, around 4:31 a.m. on the last day of 2023.
As deputies responded to the shots-fired call, they were updated by dispatchers who indicated a black truck was in the middle of the roadway, said Lt. Art Spencer, detective with LASD, shortly after the incident.
Deputies treated Marshall at the scene before medical personnel took him to Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital, where he died from his injuries.
A man who lived in the area and “returned to the scene” was detained shortly after the shooting, according to Homicide officials.
That person was identified as a “person of interest,” but he was never formally arrested, and his identity has not been publicly released.
Anyone with information about this case can anonymously contact the Los Angeles Regional Crime Stoppers Hotline at 800-222-TIPS (8477) or submit a tip online at lacrimestoppers.org. Tips and information can also be reported directly to the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department Homicide Bureau by dialing 323-890-5500.
