DNA evidence leads to arrest in 1987 killing

A former professional boxer was arrested Wednesday on suspicion of murder in the 1987 slaying of his manager, Los Angeles police said.

An LAPD-FBI fugitive task force took Exum Speight, 50, into custody at his San Fernando home Wednesday morning, a day after an arrest warrant charging him with murder was filed, police said.

Cold case detectives said DNA ultimately linked Speight to the killing of Douglas Stumler, a 30-year-old Los Angeles County Housing Authority employee who was found dead inside his West L.A. apartment on March 31, 1987. Stumler sidelined as a boxing manager and worked with Speight, even living with him at some point during the mid-1980s, LAPD Det. Rick Jackson said.

Stumler spent March 29, 1987, with a friend and returned to his apartment alone, Jackson said. The friend called later that Sunday night, but Stumler didnt answer the phone.

Red flags were raised when Stumler a sports fan and Indiana native didnt meet with friends the next day to watch his Hoosiers win the NCAA basketball championship, Jackson said. When he didnt show up for work Tuesday, his friends grew more concerned.

They know somethings not right, he said.

A friend went to Stumlers apartment with the building manager and found his body.

Jackson said there was evidence of a pretty violent struggle that stretched across the apartment. There were multiple causes of death, he said, including strangulation and stab wounds.

It was not a quick thing, he said.

Speight initially landed on the detectives radar, as the boxer and his manager had a bit of an issue years before over stolen property, Jackson said. But the connections were circumstantial investigators were never able to definitively link Speight to the crime.

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DNA evidence leads to arrest in 1987 killing