It is unclear if the deaths of the two victims are related aside from the alleged suspect
A California man who was previously charged with the murder of an aspiring rapper late last year has now been charged in connection with another homicide that reportedly occurred much earlier.
Joshua Lee Simmons, 37, was charged at the beginning of this year for the murder of Anthony James Soloc, 50, who was shot in Inglewood in January of 2023.
In Oct. 2023, Simmons was charged with the murder of Javonnta Mashann Murphy, 32, who was an up-and-coming musician known in the music world as Sirtanky. The aspiring rapper had just released his first EP months before he was killed.
Murphy’s body was found sealed in a barrel off the Pacific Coast Highway, according to reporting from Law&Crime .
Prosecutors believe that Simmons shot Murphy on July 27, 2023, and disposed of his body in a plastic barrel, per reporting from The Los Angeles Times . Three days later, a maintenance worker reportedly found the barrel floating in a shallow inlet at the Malibu Lagoon State Beach; however he did not open it. The barrel floated its way back to the lagoon and was spotted by a lifeguard who pulled it on shore and opened the container to reveal a horrifying discovery.