Seaside man pleads guilty to accessory to murder, abuse of dependent adult
The Monterey County District Attorney’s Office announced that a Seaside man pleaded guilty to abusing a dependent adult and accessory after the fact to the 2017 murder of Courtney Ann Turney.
30-year-old Manuel Jesus Lopez Jarquin was the live-in boyfriend of 44-year-old Corrie Denise Arriaga at the time of Turney’s death. Arriaga was arrested in May 2018, and in August 2019, she pleaded guilty to first-degree murder with a special circumstance allegation that the murder was intentional and involved inflicting torture. She is expected to be sentenced to life without parole when she is sentenced in December.
Turney was disabled as a result of complications during her birth. She began taking special education classes when she moved to Monterey County from Oklahoma in 2008. That year, she began living with Arriaga.
An investigation showed that Arriaga physically abused Turney, imprisoned her in the apartment, starved her and forced her to do physical labor. Arriaga also embezzled money that Turney received from the Comanche Nation. Turney was imprisoned in Arriaga’s apartment until her death in August 2017.
Turney’s body was found the day after her death. She had weighed about 230 pounds when she moved to Monterey County in 2008 but weighed only 54 pounds when she died. Turney also had a fractured skull, recent and healed rib fractures, pressure ulcers and bruising and swelling consistent with blunt force trauma.
The investigation showed that Arriaga regularly physically abused Turney, but a witness told police about an incident in late 2015 or early 2016 in which Lopez Jarquin joined Arriaga in beating Turney until she lost consciousness. Investigators said there was no evidence that Lopez Jarquin had a direct role in Turney’s murder.
Police say that because of false statements he made in interviews to protect Arriaga, he pleaded guilty to accessory after the fact to murder.
Lopez Jarquin is expected to be sentenced to seven years and eight months in state prison when he is sentenced in October.
