DATE: January 11, 2019
CASE: Teris Vinson (Case #17FE006798)
PROSECUTOR: Supervising Deputy District Attorney Rick Miller, Homicides
The Honorable Steven Gevercer sentenced Teris Vinson to 85 years and 4 months to life in prison. On December 4, 2018, a jury convicted Vinson of the first-degree murder of Janet Mejia and two counts of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.
On April 10, 2017, Mejia failed to show up for work and missed a doctor’s appointment the next morning. A missing persons investigation was initiated, which ended with the discovery of Mejia’s body. She was found wrapped in an inflatable mattress in bushes near the Sacramento/Placer County line.
Mejia had been renting a room at a friend’s apartment. The friend was in a relationship with Vinson. Sacramento sheriff’s detectives discovered Mejia’s blood on the carpet padding of her bedroom. They learned Vinson was her roommate at the time, and that he kept two guns at the residence despite being a convicted felon. DNA analysis revealed Mejia’s DNA was on the muzzle of one of the guns. An autopsy revealed she had been strangled and shot in the back of the head. Vinson had been convicted of domestic violence on two prior occasions.
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