A jury has convicted a man in the killings of two homeless women who were “ bludgeoned to death,” one in Sacramento County and another 22 months later in Yolo County, prosecutors said.
Trevaun Roman Turney was found guilty Wednesday of first-degree murder in the deaths of Maria Aguilera and Colleen Paolinelli, according to a news release from the Sacramento County District Attorney’s Office.
Investigators found the women in similar states of undress and used security camera video and DNA to identify the murder suspect and link him to the crimes.
About 12:30 p.m. on March 9, 2019, a passerby found Aguilera, 39, dead in a wooded area along the American River bike trail near the 1400 block of Northgate Boulevard, the Sacramento Police Department has said.
Prosecutors said Aguilera was found bludgeoned to death and naked from the waist down inside a canvas wagon. Homicide detectives pursued leads in the case but did not identify a suspect.
About 12:30 p.m. on Jan. 19, 2021, Paolinelli, 59, was found dead at a West Sacramento bus stop on Westacre Road, just south of West Capitol Avenue. The West Sacramento Police Department later announced the woman had suffered a traumatic injury and her death was considered to be a homicide.
Prosecutors said police detectives found security camera video that showed a person stopping at the bus stop on multiple occasions between the time when Paolinelli was last seen alive and when she was found murdered. The video also showed that person making four striking motions while he was at the bus stop.
West Sacramento police detectives had a description but could not identify the suspect.
On Nov. 16, 2021, Sacramento police detectives saw a West Sacramento police bulletin seeking to identify Paolinelli’s murderer with a suspect description and images from the security camera video.
The Sacramento detectives immediately recognized the suspect in the video as Turney. Prosecutors said Turney on Nov. 24, 2021, was arrested on suspicion of murder in Paolinelli’s death after admitting to West Sacramento detectives that he was the person in the security camera video.
On the same day he was arrested, Sacramento detectives collected a sample of Turney’s DNA.
Prosecutors said the Sacramento County District Attorney’s Crime Lab matched Turney’s DNA to traces of DNA found on Aguilera’s body and on the canvas wagon where her body was discovered. Turney was then arrested on suspicion of murder in Aguilera’s death.
Turney’s murder trial was held in Yolo Superior Court. He was prosecuted by both the Sacramento County District Attorney’s Office and the Yolo County District Attorney’s Office. A Yolo County jury convicted Turney.
Prosecutors said Turney faces a maximum sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole. Turney remains in custody and is scheduled to return to court March 29 for his sentencing hearing.