Man Gets Life in Murders of 3 Women

Snared by DNA evidence, a Hawthorne man was sentenced Tuesday to life in prison without the possibility of parole after pleading guilty to killing two women in 1992 and one in 2000, the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office said.

Renal Wise Jr., 31, was in custody last year awaiting trial in the 2000 slaying of an El Segundo woman when DNA evidence from a baseball cap linked him to the killing of two other women more than a decade ago.

Wise changed his plea in Los Angeles County Superior Court two days before a preliminary hearing in his case.

Wise pleaded guilty to the killings of Mary Ella Shoupe, Alina Casteleiro and Nicole Paquette and admitted the special circumstances of attempted residential robbery and first-degree burglary, prosecutors said.

“He obviously committed some atrocious crimes that these relatives of the victims are going to live with for the rest of their lives,” said Deputy Dist. Atty. Darrell S. Mavis. “To be able to bring closure to this case at an early stage is extremely good for the victims.”