Cold Homicide Case Heats Up with Arrest

SAN FRANCISCO, CA – It had been more than 30 years since anyone knew the whereabouts of James Francis Edwards, a one-time resident of San Francisco. At the age of 40, Edwards simply vanished without a trace following a violent confrontation that left 46-year-old Lamar Vaughn lying on a San Francisco city sidewalk suffering a gunshot wound.

Vaughn had been immediately transported to San Francisco General Hospital, where he succumbed to his wound and died. At the time, San Francisco Police Department investigators learned that the two men had been involved in a verbal confrontation prior to the shooting, and that Edwards was the principal suspect. A warrant for Edwards’ arrest on a charge of murder was soon issued, but he was nowhere to be found.

According to Santa Barbara Sheriff’s Department Public Information Officer Raquel Zick, the SFPD detectives soon learned that “Edwards used multiple identities and likely fled the state.”

That supposition proved false some 30 years later when, on March 17th , SBSD deputies were conducting a “routine welfare check on another individual” residing in the City of Carpinteria.

Upon arrival at the Carpinteria residence, deputies made contact with a 70-year-old man. Pursuant to a records check, this individual was identified as Edwards, and that he was wanted on the 1990 homicide warrant from San Francisco.

Edwards was summarily taken into custody and transported to Santa Barbara County Jail where he awaits another trip back to San Francisco to face a charge of murder with a firearm.