CORWIN MURDER SUSPECT APPEARS IN SAN BERNARDINO COURTROOM

Christopher Lee, accused of murdering Erin Corwin of Twentynine Palms in June 2014, made his first appearance in a San Bernardino courtroom Thursday morning. Under Judge Glenn Yabuno, Lee’s attorney waived a formal arraignment and entered a plea of not guilty. Under a series of peremptory challenges filed by the lawyers in the case, the trial was moved Tuesday from Joshua Tree to San Bernardino. His next court appearance will be November 4. Authorities say that on the day that Corwin disappeared from her home on the Marine base in Twentynine Palms, she was expecting a marriage proposal from Lee. After eight weeks of searching the desert in and around Joshua Tree National Park, her body was found at the bottom of a mine shaft east of Twentynine Palms with a garrote around her neck. Christopher Lee, who had gotten out of the Marine Corps a few weeks later, was arrested in his home state of Alaska and returned to California to face trial.