A San Pedro man was sentenced Monday to 41 years and 4 months to life in prison for murdering his estranged wife and dumping her body along the 710 Freeway in Long Beach nearly 17 years ago.
Carl Mayes, now 45, was convicted by jurors earlier this year of second-degree murder for the shooting death of 20-year-old Tyquesha Myers in July 2006. He was also found guilty of possession of a firearm by a felon.
Myers was last seen alive at a barbershop in Gardena where Mayes worked, prosecutors said during trial.
There, Mayes shot Myers before putting her body in the trunk of his car and telling a coworker to tell anyone who asked that Myers had left the shop, according to Deputy District Attorney Karen Brako.
The coworker would later tell police that Mayes told him he put a gun to Myer’s head to scare her and that it “went off,” Brako said.
Myers’ body was later found on July 15, 2006. She had been shot in the head and dumped along a bike path near the 710 Freeway, just north of the Pacific Coast Highway exit.
New evidence eventually led police to identify Mayes as a suspect in the case and he was arrested in September 2019. He was not granted bail and has remained behind bars ever since.
In court, Mayes’ attorney, Adam M. Koppekin, questioned the credibility of the prosecution’s key witness, calling him an “opportunist” who offered his account of Mayes’ alleged confession only after he was behind bars himself in an unrelated case.
Koppekin then contended that police had “dropped the ball again and again” on the case and urged the jury to acquit his client of the two charges against him.
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