Teenager accused of killing a woman while raping her in Modesto will be tried as adult
A suspect accused of raping and killing a woman in Modesto when he was 17 will be tried as an adult, a Stanislaus Superior Court judge decided last week.
In explaining her decision, Judge Linda McFadden said Seth Becknel “brutally murdered a woman while raping her “ and left her “face-down and naked in an alley after the attack.”
Jenny Wu, who lived at a mental health care center off Carver Road in northwest Modesto, was found dead the morning of April 21, 2017, in an alley on Evergreen Avenue. She had been asphyxiated.
The 41-year-old’s rape and murder remained unsolved for nearly two years until a DNA match linked Becknel to the crime in January 2018.
Becknel’s DNA was collected as a result of an arrest in Patterson for carrying a concealed dirk or dagger. A month later, the state Department of Justice Crime Lab notified Modesto police that it matched DNA collected in Wu’s murder, and he was arrested the following week.
During a hearing Tuesday, Becknel appeared in court shackled in arm and leg restraints because he had attempted to assault a Stanislaus County sheriff’s deputy on the way to the courtroom and had previously been violent toward deputies, a bailiff told McFadden.
McFadden said adult criminal court is the appropriate place for Becknel’s case due to the sophistication of the crime, the increasing seriousness of the crimes on his juvenile record, and because he proved he is unable or unwilling to be rehabilitated or benefit from any of the services provided by juvenile court.
She said Becknel “has expressed hatred toward women and people of color” and has made threats to those in authority.
At the time of his arrest, Modesto police released information about Becknel related to Wu’s rape and murder but not an incident that occurred a few months prior in which he entered a different woman’s home and attempted to rape her.
In a criminal complaint filed Wednesday, Becknel is charged with Wu’s rape and murder as well as burglary with the intent to commit sexual battery and attempted sexual battery of a different victim on Feb. 27, 2017, when he was 16.
Deputy Distinct Attorney John R. Mayne said he could not discuss the details of that attack other than to say it occurred in Modesto at the victim’s home.
Becknel also is accused of killing Wu while engaged in the crime of rape, a special circumstance that normally would make him eligible for the death penalty. But Mayne said that because he was a juvenile at the time of the crime, the maximum sentence he could face if convicted is life without parole. Even then, he will be eligible for parole at some point because he was a minor, Mayne said.
Becknel was arraigned on the charges Thursday in adult court and pleaded not guilty. He is being held without bail and scheduled to return to court Tuesday.
This story was originally published February 7, 2020 at 12:09 PM.
