SAN FERNANDO — A man accused of fatally shooting his ex-girlfriend in Panorama City before leading police on a three-county freeway chase was charged Friday with capital murder and other counts.

Jasper Stallings, 27, is being held without bail pending arraignment May 28 in San Fernando Superior Court.

The murder charge stems from the shooting death of the woman — identified in the criminal complaint only as "Erika B." — and includes the special circumstance allegations of lying in wait and murder during the commission of a kidnapping.

The 27-year-old woman — who was the mother of five young children —was shot to death near Van Nuys and Roscoe boulevards shortly before noon Wednesday after being forced into a red Dodge Ram pickup truck, authorities said.

Prosecutors are expected to decide later whether to seek the death penalty against Stallings.

Along with murder, he is charged with one count each of criminal threats and kidnapping involving his ex-girlfriend, who had broken up with him two days earlier, authorities said.

Stallings also is accused of one count each of kidnapping to commit another crime, second-degree robbery, kidnapping for carjacking and carjacking with the allegation of use of a firearm involving the driver of the pickup truck.

The truck was reportedly carjacked at gunpoint in the early morning hours Wednesday in the San Fernando Valley, driven to Lake Arrowhead and left at the side of the road.


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Stallings then allegedly drove back to the San Fernando Valley in the pickup.

Police spotted the truck at about 12:20 p.m. that day and began following it on a chase that led onto the Ventura (134), the Foothill (210) and the Orange (57) freeways before heading east into Riverside County on the Riverside (91) Freeway.

The truck exited the freeway at Lincoln Avenue in Corona and came to a stop about 1:15 p.m. at the end of the offramp, where about two dozen law enforcement cars massed behind it. About five minutes later, the man got out of the truck and surrendered.