AIRPORT COURTHOUSE — A judge Tuesday increased bail to $3.5 million for a Thousand Oaks woman charged with murdering an aspiring model and actress in Santa Monica in March, 2008.
Kelly Soo Park, 44, had been jailed on $1 million bail before Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Keith Schwartz made his ruling, according to Shiara Davila-Morales of the District Attorney’s Office.
Prosecutors had asked last month for Park’s bail to be increased to $5 million.
Park is accused in the killing of Juliana Redding, 21, who was found dead on March 16, 2008, in her apartment after her mother called police when she could not reach her daughter.
In court papers filed last month, the case’s investigating officer wrote that the victim’s father, Greg Redding, was involved in a business negotiation with Park’s employer, Dr. Munir Uwaydah, that “fell apart” five days before the murder.
Park received $250,000 from her employer about three weeks before the killing, and her father received a $113,400 payment three days before Park’s arrest, according to the court papers signed by Santa Monica police Detective Karen Thompson.
Uwaydah, a Marina del Rey physician, was convicted in 2005 of defrauding a medical supply company of nearly $1 million and is being investigated for possibly filing millions of dollars in fraudulent insurance claims, the Los Angeles Times reported last month.
Redding attended Salpointe Catholic High School in Tucson, where she played on the golf team. After moving to the Southland from Arizona, she landed a role in a small 2005 movie and was featured in a photo layout in Maxim magazine, winning one of the magazine’s “Hometown Hottie” contests.
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