A man arrested in March in connection with a 2011 double murder case has been extradited to South Carolina to formally face his Two Counts of Murder charges.
Kenneth Canzater, Junior (DOB: 11-10-1983) is accused of shooting and killing 25-year-old Candra Alston and stabbing her 3-year-old daughter Malaysia Boykin several times in their Brook Pines apartment in January 2011.
Canzater, an acquaintance of Alston’s, was brought to Columbia this morning by the United States Marshal’s Service (USMS) after being housed at the Robert Presley Detention Center in Riverside, California.
During a news conference about the arrest, Alston family spokesperson Sharon Williams said, “Thank you God. Thank you to law enforcement officers about being vigilant for never giving up for this family because we knew that God would come to vindicate for this family.”
On January 9, 2011, the bodies of Alston and Boykin were located by a family member at Brook Pines Apartments near Broad River Road. Phone records indicated that the crime occurred two days before the discoveries.
The suspect was initially arrested in Perris, California in March after two CPD cold case investigators served arrest warrants on him with the assistance of the USMS Pacific Southwest Regional Fugitive Force (PSWRFTF) – Team 5.
When CPD was dispatched to the crime scene 6 years ago, crime scene investigators photographed the primary piece of evidence in the case, a partial bloody palm print. At that time, the print was determined to be inconclusive for testing.
The blood however was determined to be from the child. Investigators interviewed more than 200 people to include family, friends, and known associates of Alston.
A few days later, Canzater was identified as an acquaintance and talked with CPD but denied involvement in the killings.
That fall, through a routine computer, Investigators learned that Canzater was arrested in February 2011 in Moreno, California for a probation violation on a 2005 robbery conviction.
As part of the continued review of evidence, the lead CPD investigator asked SLED to review all crime scene pictures for blood splatter or stain transfer interpretations.
When reviewing the pictures, a patent palm print was identified and entered into the national fingerprint database called Automated Fingerprint Identification System or AFIS. The palm print was manually compared to more than 100 individuals with no matches. Then the print was entered into to a state and national database.
SLED advised CPD that Canzater’s palm print was inconclusive. DNA testing could not include or exclude four individuals; Canzater was one of them. In February of this year, due to advancements in technology, SLED was able to retest the print which came back as a positive match to Canzater.
“Six years may be too late for us, but it’s right on time according to God,” Williams said.
Canzater is currently housed at the Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center (ASGDC).
All persons arrested/charged are presumed innocent until or unless proven guilty in a court of law.
