Temecula to Offer $25,000 Reward to Help Solve Young Man's Murder

By City News Service, image via Shutterstock

The Temecula City Council is expected Tuesday to approve a $25,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person or persons responsible for gunning down a 24-year-old man as he stood in the doorway of his apartment last year.

Justin Triplett was shot to death on Sept. 22, but no one has been charged with his murder.

“The pain of this loss is almost unbearable for me,” the victim’s mother, Joyce Triplett, wrote earlier this month in a letter to Councilman Mike Neggar.

“Justin was the most precious gift that God has ever given to me. I believe that a financial reward offered for information leading to the arrest of those responsible for my son’s death ... will bring this crime to justice.”

Triplett was killed after answering the door to his apartment in the 29000 block of Rancho California Road. According to sheriff’s investigators, the attack happened about 10:15 a.m.

Less than two weeks later, two people were arrested in connection with the slaying -- Eligha Everett and Leah Nolan, both 22 and of Temecula. However, the pair were released from custody a short time later after they were able to provide alibis regarding their whereabouts at the time of the crime.

Triplett was an aspiring rapper who went by the stage name Yung Trip the Pretty. According to his mother, he was “well-loved” and a “generous Christian man with a big heart” who had been actively engaged in his church and was “reaching out to others” to encourage them to share in his faith.

His killing was a crushing blow that none of his friends or family could comprehend, the grief-stricken Murrieta woman wrote.

Neggar is proposing to use city general fund money to establish the Justin Triplett Reward Fund.

Under Neggar’s proposal, the public would be invited to contribute to the fund.

According to criteria advanced by Neggar, in order to be eligible for the reward money, an applicant would have to provide key “evidence regarding the circumstances surrounding the death of Justin Triplett, or the whereabouts of the person or persons responsible ... and cooperate with the sheriff’s department and prosecuting attorneys (in) all phases of the criminal justice process.”