RIVERSIDE (CNS) - A parolee accused of fatally stabbing his 27-year-old
girlfriend in her Moreno Valley apartment pleaded not guilty today to a first-
degree murder charge.
Brandon Ramsey Wilson, 27, allegedly killed Renisha Leshay Bruins on
March 27.
Wilson, who's being held without bail at the Robert Presley jail in
Riverside, could face 26 years to life in prison if convicted of the murder
count as well as a sentence-enhancing allegation of using a deadly weapon in
the commission of a felony.
The defendant appeared today before Riverside County Superior Court
Judge Richard T. Fields, who set a felony settlement conference in the case for
April 27.
On the morning of the fatal assault, Wilson walked into the sheriff's
Moreno Valley station and described ``an incident between he and his
girlfriend,' according to sheriff's Sgt. Herman Lopez.
After listening to the parolee's story, deputies went to Bruins'
apartment in the 12000 block of Memorial Way and ``found a female who'd been
stabbed several times,' Lopez said.
She was pronounced dead at the scene.
According to court records, Wilson was convicted in 2007 of check fraud
and sentenced to two years in state prison. He was released in 2009. In January
2010, the ex-con was arrested on suspicion of burglary, but no charges were
filed, court documents show.