Jury selection begins Tuesday in the trial of a man accused of killing a woman at a hotel in downtown San Diego and leaving her body in a common shower area.
Jason Lewis, 41, a registered sex offender with a criminal history that includes sexual battery and felony domestic violence, is accused of killing Jhordann Rust, a 26-year-old woman from Wisconsin, in December 2015 at the 500 West Hotel and Hostel.
Police found the woman’s body in a common shower area on the second floor of the hotel. A witness told NBC 7 that the day before Rust’s slaying, she and Lewis had gotten into an argument in front of the hotel. The pair had met just before her killing.
At a preliminary hearing last December, prosecutors said Lewis took steps to conceal Rust's body, including purchasing a suitcase to apparently move the woman’s body into a community shower area.
Deputy District Attorney Melissa Vasel said Lewis has a criminal record of violent crimes.
Vasel said the circumstances of the slaying of Rust began with the woman and her boyfriend checking into the hotel in downtown San Diego on Dec. 12, 2015. Soon thereafter, Rust's boyfriend was arrested on a domestic violence charge.
Just after midnight on Dec. 13, 2015, Rust's mother called the San Diego Police Department (SDPD) from her home in Wisconsin. She told police her daughter had called her that night, saying she was being attacked by a man named Jason. The mother could overhear a struggle in the background.
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Officers performed a welfare check, but could not find Rust.
Two days later, Vasel said police received a report of a woman’s body found at the 500 West Hotel and Hostel. Investigators determined the victim was Rust, and said she had died from strangulation, blunt force trauma or a combination of the two, Vasel said.
They also found a phone belonging to Rust’s boyfriend and a bloody mattress pad near the body.
Officers said evidence led them to zero in on Lewis: witnesses said they saw Lewis and Rust together the night of Dec. 12, 2015, at a 7-Eleven store. That was the last time Rust was seen alive.
After searching Lewis’ room at the hotel, investigators found a bloody mattress and a bloody suitcase.
Police later tracked down surveillance video taken on Dec. 14, 2015, of Lewis purchasing a suitcase at a local store. Vasel said it appeared Lewis used that suitcase he bought to move Rust's body to the shower area.
Lewis has been charged with first-degree murder in the slaying of Rust. If convicted, he faces 56 years to life in prison.
