Hemet Man Pleads Guilty To Halloween 2012 Murder, Rape of Murrieta Woman

MURRIETA (CBSLA.com) — A Hemet man pleaded guilty on Friday to raping and murdering a 23 year old Murrieta woman on Oct. 31, 2012, and also to setting fire to the woman's apartment, where her 3 year old son was sleeping.

As part of his pretrial plea deal with the Riverside County District Attorney's Office, Marquise Denzell McGlown, 25, will be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole on August 7, but will not be sentenced to the death penalty.

The crime occurred in the early morning hours of Halloween.

Prosecutors said McGlown and a friend ran into the victim, Shanae Christina Wesley, at a Temecula bar and Wesley invited the two men back to her house. Before McGlown and his friend departed, McGlown took a set of Wesley's keys, which he later used to reenter the house.

He set the fire to the apartment in an apparent attempt to cover up his crimes and fled in Wesley's 2006 Chevrolet Cobalt.

A neighbor saw smoke billowing from a window and rushed in to save Wesley's son, who was briefly hospitalized but released in good condition to the care of extended family. When firefighters arrived, they found Wesley's badly burned remains.

Investigators found Wesley's car in a Hemet parking lot near McGlown's home two days later. McGlown was arrested a few weeks later and initially pleaded not guilty to the murder.

McGlown had a prior felony conviction for a 2008 burglary, for which he served less than two years in prison.

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