Homeless man charged in killing
SANTA ANA, Calif. — A homeless man has been charged with killing former 1960s soul singer Betty Jane Willis during an attempted rape.
Twenty-two-year-old Rosendo Xo Pec was charged Wednesday with murder with special circumstances and could face the death penalty.
It’s unclear whether he has an attorney.
The 76-year-old Willis recorded the 1960s songs "Someday You’ll Need My Love,” “Act Naturally” and “Take My Heart.”
She was living on the street when she was attacked shortly after 4 a.m. on New Year’s Day.
Prosecutors say she was sleeping in a strip mall parking lot in Santa Ana when Pec began sexually assaulting her.
When she screamed for help, prosecutors say Pec repeatedly punched her in the head and choked her to stop her screams.
She died at the scene.
Dave returns to TV on Netflix
NEW YORK — David Letterman has lined up former president Barack Obama to be his first guest when he returns to a TV talk show later this month.
Obama will join Letterman on Jan. 12 for the launch of the new “My Next Guest Needs No Introduction with David Letterman” on Netflix.
Other guests slated to be on the show include George Clooney, Malala Yousafzai, Jay-Z, Tina Fey and Howard Stern. In each hourlong episode, Letterman will conduct a long-form conversation with a single guest and explore topics of his own outside the studio.
It will be the first talk show Letterman has hosted since he stepped down from CBS’ “Late Show with David Letterman” in May 2015.
Beloved book store owner dies
NEW YORK — The co-owner of the Strand, one of the country’s largest and most beloved independent bookstores, has died.
Fred Bass died Wednesday morning at his home in Manhattan. He was 89. Leigh Altshuler, the Strand’s director of communications, said the cause of death was heart failure.
Located in the Union Square neighbourhood of Manhattan, the sprawling Strand has for decades been a meeting ground for literary obsessives who love poring through its stacks of books inside the store and on tables outside.