Lindon Barrett’s colleagues at UC-Riverside describe him as a brilliant scholar
A 20-year-old southern California man has been arrested in connection with the murder of an African-American studies professor who was found dead in his home last week, according to officials at the university where the victim worked. Marlon Martinez was booked on suspicion of murder when he returned to the missing car of Lindon Barrett, which police had staked out. Barrett, 46, who taught Black history at the University of California-Riverside, was found dead in his Long Beach, Calif., home on Sunday. Authorities say they had been called by neighbors who reported a foul odor coming from one of the units, according to a Long Beach Police news release. Barrett apparently had been dead for several days, police said, whose investigation concluded that he had been slain. When detectives realized that the victim’s vehicle was missing, they began a search. Once police found it, they staked it out. Martinez was locked up in the Long Beach Jail in lieu of $1 million bail, according to police. University officials said that Barrett had taught at the UC-Riverside for about a year. “A brilliant scholar, Lindon was just finishing a major book on slavery’s central role in the evolution of Western modernity,” wrote Katherine Kinney, English Department chairwoman in a statement released to the press. “Lindon offered so much, personally and professionally, to the department, the campus, and the scholarly field of African-American studies.” Barrett and Martinez were apparently acquaintances, police said.