California man killed disabled roommate with hammer before burying her in a wall for 6 years because 'God wanted her'
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: A 47-year-old man was sentenced to 11 years in prison for killing his disabled roommate and hiding her body in the wall for six years.
After 31-year-old Raven Joy Campbell went missing in 2009, her decomposed body was recovered from behind a wall at a residence she shared with Randolph Garbutt in 2015.
An autopsy revealed that the victim, who had special needs, was killed by blunt force trauma to the head. Investigators later determined that a hammer was used to deliver a fatal blow to her.
Myesha Smith, Garbutt's ex-girlfriend and the mother of his child, helped him bury Campbell's body after he murdered his then-roommate.
After wrapping Campbell's body in a blanket and a sheet of plastic, the duo made a makeshift grave by making a hole in the closet wall and digging under the floor, the Daily Breeze reported.
Smith later testified under an immunity deal that Garbutt had told her that Campbell needed to die because "God wanted her".
The victim's whereabouts remained unknown until Campbell’s family received an anonymous tip in June 2015. Some of the neighbors also started complaining of a foul odor coming from the residence.
Seven months after the police recovered Campbell's body, Garbutt was arrested in connection to her death.
Upon interrogation, the accused initially told investigators that he had suffocated her with a plastic bag after Campbell had fallen and hurt her head while returning home one day because he was afraid he will be blamed for her injuries.
In September, however, he pleaded no contest to a single count of felony voluntary manslaughter. Since he has been jailed from February 2016, Garbutt received four years of credit for the time served behind bars.
The victim's family, however, said that they were not satisfied with the sentence handed down by the judge.
"The irony is this man will probably only do about as much time as she was while she was in the wall," Campbell's sister Cynthia Campbell Kemp said in court. "The punishment is not just, but we’re just going to have to accept it."