Arrest in 1990 South L.A. slaying provides a sense of justice

By Ruben Vives and Richard Winton

Jan. 16, 2009 12 AM PT

In their rough South Los Angeles neighborhood, Mary Romer and Alma Harvey watched over each other.

So back in February 1990, Romer didn’t think twice about walking across the street to Harvey’s home when another friend called. They were concerned because they had not heard from the 82-year-old, who had trouble walking and was mostly housebound.

Romer used a spare key to enter the house. As she crept inside, she called for her friend, but there was no answer. In the bedroom, she discovered Harvey’s lifeless body lying on the bed with her arms half-raised and her face covered by a sheet. Police later determined that she had been raped and strangled.

Detectives spent months investigating, but in a city that recorded nearly 1,000 homicides that year, the slaying of Alma Harvey was quickly forgotten.

“I couldn’t sleep for many months,” said Romer, now 84, recalling those days. “I can still see her begging for her life.”

But a few years ago, police decided to take a second look at the case. Detectives tested DNA evidence found on Harvey’s bedsheet, believing it had been left by her killer. Recently, they got a hit on a national DNA database.

That led them to a man whose family lived next door on East 32nd Street. Isidro R. Ponce, 48, was arrested and charged with capital murder this week.

And Romer got a knock on her door from LAPD detectives, who told her of his capture. Romer said it brought back memories -- and also a sense of justice.

“I’ve been waiting for this,” Romer said. “Nineteen years is a long time.”

Harvey, a Mississippi native, worked as a nurse at two local hospitals. In the neighborhood, she was known for greeting everyone with a wave and smile. She gave thank-you cards every year to the mail carrier, Romer said.

She lived alone and had no relatives in L.A. There was no funeral service or memorial. She was cremated, and Romer said she doesn’t know what happened to her remains.

For years, some neighbors believed the killers lived in a nearby house where they suspected crack was being used.

Kelle Baitx was a rookie detective with the Los Angeles Police Department when he was assigned to work on the Harvey case.

“There was no evidence of forced entry,” he said. “But people knew she kept her doors unlocked.”

In 2002, the department added to the national database DNA found at the house. Nothing came up.

“There was a point where it looked like we’d never get a match and it would remain unsolved,” said Baitx, now a supervising detective with the LAPD’s Newton division.

Then in October, Ponce was arrested in Concord on an outstanding domestic violence arrest warrant from Los Angeles. Ponce was shipped back to L.A. Once in jail, his mouth was eventually swabbed for DNA, as is standard procedure. On Jan. 5, the LAPD got the call that Ponce’s DNA matched that from the Harvey crime scene. A check of Ponce’s background revealed he was a one-time neighbor, LAPD Deputy Chief Charlie Beck said. Investigators had interviewed a relative back in 1990, but he didn’t mention Ponce.

A day after learning of the DNA match, detectives arrested Ponce at his sister’s home in southeastern Los Angeles. When detectives approached him, Baitx said the suspect’s “reaction was indifference.”

Ponce’s sister, Estella Asantillan, 44, said she can’t believe her brother is a suspect in such a terrible crime. “We’re finding it hard to believe the accusation -- that one of our own family members is capable of doing that,” Asantillan said.

She said that since her brother’s arrest, other family members have gathered at her home, each thinking back to the day of the killing, wondering if there was anything out of the ordinary that went unnoticed.

“Nothing stands out,” Asantillan said. “We’re going to wait until the trial, until we hear the evidence,” she said.

[email protected]