Man Convicted of Murder in 1994 Burglary

A jury deliberated less than a full day Thursday before finding a transient guilty of first-degree murder in the slaying of a 71-year-old Santa Ana woman in her apartment.

Michael Dean Owens, 33, faces life in prison without possibility of parole when he is sentenced March 21 in Orange County Superior Court.

The jury found that he killed Patricia Hamilton Powell during a burglary and an attempted rape. Jurors were unable to reach a verdict on whether the murder occurred during a rape.

Owens’ attorney contended that his client suffered a long history of mental illness, including psychiatric hospitalization before and after his arrest, and killed the woman in a frenzy.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Daniel McNerney said Owens may have mental problems, but was able to make deliberate choices as he beat the woman in her living room, then dragged her into the bedroom for further assault.

Powell’s battered body was found on April 28, 1994, in her 10th-floor apartment in the Wycliffe Plaza senior citizen complex on North Flower Street.

Owens had been seen in her apartment about 1:30 a.m. that day when her smoke detector went off. A member of the building’s volunteer security staff questioned Owens, then left after he told him he had burned a pizza in the kitchen.

Owens also left fingerprints in the apartment, and was arrested two days later.

The victim was one of the first women in California to join the U.S. Marines during wartime. She worked in the U.S. Marine’s postal system at Camp Pendleton during World War II and moved to Santa Ana in the mid-1970s.