California woman charged with double murder: stabbing and hit-and-run within hours

Anila Baby, 32, of Milpitas faces two murder charges after allegedly stabbing one woman and running over another with her car on 28 August.

Milpitas woman held without bail over two killings hours apart

A 32-year-old woman from Milpitas, Northern California, has been charged with two counts of murder after authorities say she killed two women within hours of each other on 28 August, latimes.com reports. Anila Baby faces the charges brought by the Santa Clara County district attorney's office.

Around noon that day, Milpitas police responded to reports that an SUV had struck a woman in the parking area of an apartment complex. Responders found Anjana Hari, 32, on the ground bleeding from her head; she was pronounced dead shortly after. Witnesses told police they saw the victim walking towards the car when the driver accelerated abruptly, hit her and drove off.

Officers located Baby in a Walgreens parking lot shortly after noon, inside a vehicle matching the one described by witnesses. She was incoherent, injured and had blood on her arms and legs, according to a detective's statement provided by the district attorney's office.

Approximately two hours before the parking-lot incident, Ann Matthew, 39, was found dead at her home in San José. Matthew appeared to have been stabbed and strangled, and showed signs of blunt trauma to the head. Police determined that Baby was likely inside the victim's house between approximately 10:30 a.m. and 11:40 a.m. — shortly before the alleged hit-and-run. Authorities said the two women knew each other.

A police review of home surveillance footage showed that several clips from that morning had been deleted, according to a San José Police Department detective's statement. A sandal visible in one remaining clip matched the footwear Baby was wearing at the time of her arrest. Investigators also matched a blood stain on Baby's trousers to Matthew, with analysis returning a result described as overwhelmingly likely. Additional surveillance footage placed Baby's car in the area that morning, and cellphone location data further corroborated her presence at the victim's home, police said.

Baby was arraigned on Thursday and ordered held without bail. Her next scheduled court date is 17 November.

Source: Google News MT — Crime (en)