Slain man identified as UC Riverside professor Lindon Barrett
His body was found in his Long Beach home. A suspect is in custody.
By Jeff Gottlieb, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
7:27 PM PDT, July 15, 2008
A man found slain in his Long Beach home over the weekend was identified today as a UC Riverside English professor who specialized in African American studies, officials said.

Lindon Barrett, 46, was found in his home on Sunday after neighbors reported a foul odor coming from one of the units in the complex, Long Beach police said.

It appeared that Barrett had been dead for several days, investigators said. They found his missing vehicle near Paramount Boulevard and South Street and staked it out.

Marlon Martinez, 20, of Long Beach was arrested about 11:20 p.m. Sunday when he went to the vehicle, police said. He was arrested on suspicion of murder and was being held at the Long Beach jail on $1 million bail, authorities said.

Katherine Kinney, chairwoman of the English Department at UC Riverside, said the faculty was devastated by Barrett's death.

"A brilliant scholar, Lindon was just finishing a major book on slavery's central role in the evolution of Western modernity," Kinney said in a statement. "Lindon offered so much, personally (yeah, his penis) and professionally (his body oder), to the department, the campus and the scholarly (hahaha... what a joke) field of African American studies."

Long Beach police said Barrett and Martinez were acquaintances (fag lovers), but they did not elaborate.