A 27-year-old California man has been arrested in the horrific double murder of a 6-year-old boy and his great-grandmother whose bodies were discovered in their San Jose apartment earlier this month, authorities said.
Nathan Addison was arrested Wednesday. He is the uncle of 6-year-old Jordan Cam Walker and is the grandson of 71-year-old Delphina Turner who were both found dead Aug. 4, according to San Jose police.
Addison was booked into the Santa Clara County Main Jail on Thursday and was being held without bail. On Friday, he was charged with two counts of murder and two other felonies related to him allegedly threatening to burn his sister’s house down and trying to assault her son a day before the killings.
An arraignment hearing set for Friday afternoon was continued to Monday after Addison refused to appear in a San Jose courtroom.
According to an SJPD investigative summary accompanying the criminal complaint, police offers were called to the Vista apartment complex on Parkmoor Avenue after relatives of Jordan and Turner went there to check on the two and found their bodies inside the apartment where they lived.
Until now, San Jose police have been tight-lipped about a possible suspect in the investigation, even as those who knew the victims had openly suspected a relative was a likely culprit. Even on Friday, when police announced Addison’s arrest, they did not disclose any information about what fueled the killings, saying in a news release that “the motive and circumstances surrounding the incident are under investigation.”
The investigative summary similarly did not offer any insight on a potential motive.
But police were told early on by the victims’ relatives that they suspected Addison was involved, and drew on eyewitness accounts and surveillance and security footage from the surrounding area to establish that Addison had been at the apartment on August 3, the night before the bodies were found and when authorities believe the killings occurred, according to the police summary. Detectives also stated they found evidence suggesting that someone tried to “clean up” the crime scene.
Police also wrote that detectives tracked Turner’s cell phone signal to a nearby VTA transit station, and that surveillance video showed someone matching Addison’s description smashing and destroying electronic items including a cell phone and a tablet or laptop computer.
On Wednesday, police found and arrested Addison, and he reportedly “identified himself as the person depicted on the surveillance footage” that detectives had gathered in their investigation, according to the summary.
During the investigation, police uncovered allegations that on Aug. 2, Addison was staying at his sister’s home and had a violent episode in which he swung a level at the head of his sister’s son, then later put a metal mug in a microwave, a fire extinguisher in the dryer, and told her “he was going to burn the house down with everyone inside.” Those alleged acts are the basis of the second pair of charges.
Anyone with information about the stabbings can contact the SJPD homicide unit at 408-277-5283 or email Detective Sgt. J.J. Vallejo at 3810@sanjoseca.gov or Detective Mike Harrington at 4365@sanjoseca.gov. Tips can also be left with Silicon Valley Crime Stoppers at 408-947-7867 or at svcrimestoppers.org
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