SOUTH-CENTRAL : Man to Face Murder Charge in Slaying 20 Years Ago

A 48-year-old Alabama shoe store manager was brought to Los Angeles on Friday to face charges that he killed a man he caught in bed with his girlfriend 20 years ago.

Robert Lee Perkins, who authorities say started a new life under a different name after fleeing to Alabama, was flown to Los Angeles and booked on a murder charge. He waived extradition after his arrest Thursday in Montgomery, Ala.

Police had been unable to find Perkins since a warrant was issued for his arrest in the December, 1973, murder of Rupert Davis in a home in South-Central Los Angeles.

Investigators said Perkins took the name Robert Lee Wilson in Montgomery, where he has a wife and a teen-age son, got a business degree at Auburn University and worked as a regional representative for Pic-N-Pay Shoes. “He was very well thought of in the community,” said Los Angeles Police Detective Carlos Brizzolara.