Christopher Nelson Waters, 42

Christopher Nelson Waters, a 42-year-old white man, died Tuesday, April 23, 2013, after he was strangled in the 700 block of East Vernon Street in Long Beach, according to Los Angeles County prosecutors.

Waters’ body was found about 2 p.m. in the back of his burning SUV in the 30100 block of Miraleste Drive in Rancho Palos Verdes. The Times reported that his feet were bound and a cord was wrapped around his neck, according to Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Lt. Holly Francisco. 

Investigators think Waters was beaten and strangled earlier in the day by two Long Beach Poly High School students intent on robbing him, Francisco said. 

José Ángel Martinez, 22, of Compton, was found guilty of first-degree murder and arson on Oct. 6, 2017, and sentenced to 28 years to life in prison for his role in Waters’ death, according to a news release from the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office. 

Martinez’s friend Adrian Berumen, 22, of Long Beach, was 17 when Waters was killed. The case against him was sent to juvenile court at the time, but prosecutors announced that they wanted to try Berumen as an adult. A hearing to transfer the case to adult court is scheduled for Feb. 14, 2018. 

Waters was a graphic artist who designed and made T-shirts, and he had been helping Martinez and Berumen start their own T-shirt line, his sister Jennifer Waters told the Press-Telegram. Waters was living in a sober-living home, his sister said, but shortly before his death, he had raised enough money to buy a used vehicle and move into his own apartment. 

Prosecutors say Berumen and Martinez, who was 18 when Waters was killed, lured Waters into the garage outside Berumen’s home with promises that they would help him find an apartment if he brought the first and last month’s rent, Los Angeles County Deputy Dist. Atty. Brian Kang told jurors during Martinez’s trial, according to the Press-Telegram.

During the trial, Kang said the two, who were high school students at the time, attacked Waters when he arrived at the garage, beating him with a miniature baseball bat and then strangling him with an electric cord. 

Once he was dead, Kang told jurors, Martinez and Berumen put Waters’ body in the back of his 1999 Chevy Tahoe and drove it to a private basketball court in Rancho Palos Verdes, where they doused the SUV in gasoline and set it on fire. 

Afterward, Kang said, the students called a taxi and went to the Lakewood Mall, where security cameras caught them carrying bags of merchandise purchased with Waters’ money, the Press-Telegram reported.

Berumen turned himself in to the Long Beach Police Department four days later, The Times reported, but didn’t mention that Martinez was involved. Investigators linked the two after a resident in Rancho Palos Verdes reported seeing two people walk away from the burning SUV. 

Martinez originally told investigators that he and Berumen killed Waters in self-defense after Waters attacked them over money he thought was owed him, the Press-Telegram reported. During Martinez’s trial, however, his attorney, Cynthia LeGardye, said Martinez lied about Waters’ attacking him, and blamed Berumen for killing Waters. 

“Jose was just a kid hanging out with his friend on a regular day,” the Press-Telegram reported LeGardye as telling jurors. 

Waters’ mother, Cora Klahn, was in court to hear the guilty verdict. “I kind of feel like I can lay him to rest now,” she said. 

“There was a real human being behind all of this, and he was loved.” 

Contact the Homicide Report. Follow @latimeshomicide on Twitter.