Body found in trunk of car after police pursuit turns out to be suspect’s mother

A mother is dead and her son is in custody after police say he led them on a pursuit in El Cajon with her body in the trunk of the car.

The chase began Monday after 5 p.m., when El Cajon police received a call from a man who said he’d found his mother’s body inside her car at a Motel 6.

The caller said his mother was visiting his brother, 24-year-old Richard Leyva, who was staying at the motel, according to a police news release. But when his mother did not return, he went to the motel to check on her, officials said.

Once he got there, he looked inside the trunk and found his mother’s body, police said. The brothers then got into a confrontation and Leyva fled in the car with his mother’s body still inside, according to officials. The car struck Leyva’s brother as he made his escape but the brother was uninjured.

Officers responded to the scene and found the vehicle near the intersection of Madison and Magnolia avenues.

Leyva sped away when officers tried to pull him over, starting a car chase that began and ended in El Cajon after making a circle through Spring Valley. He hit two other vehicles during the pursuit, police said. No one was injured in the collisions, and Leyva was taken into custody after officers used a stun gun.

When officers opened the trunk, they found the body of 51-year-old Jamison Webster inside.

Leyva was booked on suspicion of murder, assault with a deadly weapon and evading law enforcement and is being held without bail, San Diego County jail records show. The cause of Webster’s death remains under investigation.

The El Cajon Police Department initially reported that the case was being investigated as a possible kidnapping.

News station KNSD reports witnesses at the motel heard an argument before the pursuit.

“I just heard yelling,” Ian Forbes, a guest at the motel, told the news station. “I didn’t know what was going on.”

Anyone with information about the case can call El Cajon Police at (619) 579-3311 or submit an anonymous tip at sdcrimestoppers.org.