California DOJ criminalist testified at the trial

SOLANO COUNTY – On May 16, 2025, more than four decades after the murder of De Anna Lynn Johnson, 14, of Vacaville, Marvin Markle was sentenced to 26 years to life in state prison, consecutive to the life sentence he is currently serving.

On March 20th, 2025, a jury returned a verdict of First-Degree Murder and found the enhancement for Personal Use of a Deadly Weapon to be True. Chief Deputy District Attorney Paul Sequeira, who personally handled the case, was able to overcome many obstacles that are inherent in unsolved murder cases. Fortunately, retired Vacaville Police Officers Joseph Munoz (88), Don Waller, Dolores Dunnachie, and Jeff Higby, who originally investigated De Anna Lynn Johnson’s murder in 1982, were still available to testify at the trial.

On January 24, 2017, after 34 years of tireless efforts by the Vacaville Police Department to solve De Anna Lynn Johnson’s case and bring justice to her family, Marvin Markle was arrested for her murder. At the time of his arrest at Kern Valley State Prison, Markle was serving a life sentence for the murder of Shirley Ann Pratt of Butte County.

On November 15, 1982, De Anna Lynn Johnson, who was a 14-year-old student attending Will C. Wood, was murdered in her hometown of Vacaville. Her body was found on railroad tracks just a short distance from her home, where it was apparent she had been strangled and her body badly bludgeoned.

“The long arm of the law becomes even stronger now that we have advances in science and technology.  Criminalists at California DOJ are contributing significantly to cold case investigations and prosecutions.  This sentencing has been a long time coming for family members and the Vacaville community,” said California Statewide Law Enforcement Association (CSLEA) President Alan Barcelona.

The article Criminalist: DNA recovered from Bay Area teen’s body in 1982 matches accused killer features testimony by CSLEA member Stephanie Carpenter, a senior criminalist at the California Department of Justice in Sacramento.