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Man charged with capital murder in 2005 home-invasion robbery

A man was charged Wednesday in the 2010 death of an 80-year-old man who was found bound and gagged in his home five years earlier in Manchester Square, according to the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office.

Harry Leon Neely, a black man, was arrested on suspicion of murder March 9 in Memphis, Tenn., prosecutors said. Neely has been charged with capital murder and first-degree burglary. Neely also faces a special-circumstance allegation that the killing was carried out during the commission of a robbery. Prosecutors will decide whether to seek the death penalty at a later date.

On Aug. 13, 2005, Harvey Sumpter, a black man, was found bound and gagged in his home. Police said he appeared to have been robbed. Sumpter was in a vegetative state until he died almost five years later, on Feb. 19, 2010, of blunt force trauma to the head.

A spokesman for the district attorney’s office said there's no indication that the victim knew Neely.

Contact the Homicide Report. Follow @nicolesantacruz and @latimeshomicide on Twitter.

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