Local News in Brief : Slaying Suspect Held

Police arrested a transient Thursday in the death of a young musician who was beaten and strangled and then dumped in a ventilation shaft at Hollywood High School.

Mel Hemphill, 22, was arrested about 1:30 a.m. by Los Angeles Unified School District police who found him sexually assaulting a 14-year-old boy on the same campus where the body of Peter Campo Jr., 18, was found May 2, police said.

Hemphill, who has lived in the Los Angeles area off and on for about three years, “made admissions that linked him to (Campo’s) death,” Los Angeles Police Detective Russell Kuster said. He was booked on suspicion of murder and held without bail.

The 14-year-old assault victim was not seriously injured and was released to his parents, Kuster said.

Campo, a former choirboy from Putnman Valley, N.Y., who came to Hollywood seven weeks ago to seek a career as a rock guitarist, was last seen about 1 a.m. on May 2 after leaving his apartment for a walk in the direction of the school. Police at first speculated that robbery was the motive, but Kuster said Thursday that there was a “strong likelihood” that Campo was sexually assaulted.