OAKLAND — When Richard Debnan Charles is sentenced for murdering his 32-year-old fiancée and stuffing her body in a trunk, it will be the second time an Alameda County judge throws him in prison for a homicide.
In 1985, Charles was charged with murder for fatally stabbing 28-year-old Delcenia Maria Wright inside her Oakland apartment. He later received an 11-year prison sentence after pleading no contest for voluntary manslaughter, records show.
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Wright was found dead in her apartment on 89th Avenue, near where Charles lived. He told police at the time the two met through working at the same club and that he went to her home, discovered her body and stole jewelry from inside. But he confessed to friends that he stabbed Wright because she wouldn’t have sex with him, according to court records.
Now Charles, 70, is back in custody for an eerily similar crime. Last week, an Alameda County jury found him guilty of second-degree murder in the death of Anika Crane, who disappeared for several months in March 2020 before her body was discovered.
Prosecutors said Charles beat Crane to death with his own fists and stuffed her body into the trunk of a car, which was later discovered abandoned below Interstate 580 in the unincorporated area known as Ashland, near Hayward and San Leandro.
Charles was apparently upset that Crane had found a new boyfriend, and confronted them both shortly before she disappeared. When Crane’s family tracked Charles down and demanded answers, he told them he was supposed to meet Crane for a dinner date that evening but that she’d never shown up, according to Oakland police.
During trial, prosecutors argued Crane had stayed at Charles’ home — an RV — the night before. They said Charles killed Crane that night, enlisting help from an unnamed individual to dispose of the body while spending hours cleaning his home.
Charles’ attorney, Miki Tal, unsuccessfully argued there was no motive offered by prosecutors and very little blood found at the crime scene. But the jury returned a guilty verdict within a day of beginning deliberations.
Prosecutors revealed details of the prior homicide in court filings, before Charles’ murder trial earlier this month.
In Wright’s killing, police were initially stumped, theorizing she may have been surprised by a burglar. Later, they spoke to neighbors of Wright, who identified Charles. During a police interview, Charles initially said he and Wright had drinks that night, and she was alive when he left, but later changed his story, according to media reports at the time.
“This was an innocent woman in her own home, minding her own business,” a police investigator told the Oakland Tribune in 1985. “There was no reason for it.”
Staff writers Harry Harris, Jakob Rodgers, and Shomik Mukherjee contributed reporting.