Escondido

An Escondido man, previously convicted of killing his wife, was ordered Friday to stand trial on a murder charge in the killing of his girlfriend, whose body was found stuffed inside a shipping barrel.

Municipal Judge Larry Stahl ordered Terrence Ruza, 40, to appear July 22 in Superior Court for arraignment.

Ruza is accused of shooting his live-in girlfriend, Leona Lana, 33, several times in the head, then dumping her body in a 50-gallon barrel. The victim, a self-employed bookkeeper, was last seen alive May 11 when she returned home from taking her 14-year-old daughter to school.

Her decomposed body was found in the barrel in a garage at a San Diego apartment project seven days later after residents complained about a foul odor.

Ruza, who is being held without bail, served two years in prison after a manslaughter conviction in the 1979 killing of his wife, Pam, who was beaten to death with a hammer at the couple’s Palm Desert home. Her body was later discovered in a shallow grave at the couple’s other home in Lake Arrowhead.

Ruza was charged with first-degree murder in that case, but testimony indicating that his wife may have been having an extramarital affair persuaded the jury to convict him of the lesser charge.