On November 28, 1978, James Marce Carnell, a 54-year-old white male gas station attendant, was brutally murdered in San Bernardino, California. The perpetrator, David Martin Long, later confessed to the killing, stating that he beat Carnell with a tire iron during a dispute over a $16 charge for tire repairs. To ensure Carnell's death, Long shoved a broom handle down his throat.
The crime came to light when a customer noticed Long, with blood on his hands, giving away free gasoline at the station and alerted the authorities.
Despite Long's confession, he was never formally charged or tried for Carnell's murder. At the time of his confession, Long was already in custody for a separate triple homicide committed in Lancaster, Texas, in 1986. In that case, he murdered three women—Donna Sue Jester, her mother Dalpha Lorene Jester, and Laura Lee Owens—using a hatchet. Long was convicted of these murders in 1987 and sentenced to death. He was executed by lethal injection in Texas on December 8, 1999.
James Marce Carnell was laid to rest at Hermosa Gardens Cemetery in Colton, San Bernardino County, California.
