Suspected Stockton serial killer charged with three counts of murder

STOCKTON — Days after a 43-year-old Stockton man was arrested in connection with six allegedly connected homicides in Stockton and Oakland, prosecutors have charged him with three of the killings.

Wesley Brownlee, a Bay Area native and Stockton resident, was charged Tuesday with murdering Juan Cruz, Jonathan Rodriguez Hernandez, and Lorenzo Lopez, who is identified in court records as Lawrence Lopez. Prosecutors have not said whether they would charge Brownlee with the other three killings that police publicly linked him to over the weekend.

Brownlee was due in court Tuesday afternoon for an arraignment before San Joaquin Superior Court Judge Ronald Northup, court records show. Brownlee is also charged with being a felon in possession of a firearm and ammunition.

Authorities said during the investigation that five 2022 homicides in Stockton and one in Oakland, in 2021, appeared to have the same factual patterns and that the same gun was used in all six. A seventh Stockton shooting in April 2021, where a 46-year-old woman was wounded but survived, was also connected, authorities said.

Police pointed out that the majority of the victims were of Latino descent, suggesting a racial motive, but have not publicly stated what they believe spurred Brownlee to kill. They allege that Brownlee would drive around early in the morning “hunting” for victims. He was arrested during a 2 a.m. traffic stop in Stockton with a mask and a gun, in the car, police said.

Court records show Brownlee grew up in an Oakland apartment a short distance from where police claim he fatally shot Juan Vasquez Serrano, 40, on April 10, 2021. He was also arrested in the neighborhood three times over 20 years for selling crack cocaine. In the same neighborhood, in 1995, Brownlee’s brother and family friend were killed six months apart in what police called “drug related” homicides.

Stockton authorities have identified the Stockton victims as: Paul Yaw, 35, killed July 8, 2022; Salvador Debudey Jr., 43, killed Aug. 11, 2022; Jonathan Hernandez Rodriguez, 21, killed Aug. 30, 2022; Juan Cruz, 52, killed Sept. 21, 2022; and Lawrence Lopez Sr., 54, killed Sept. 27, 2022.