Criminal Trials
On April 3, at a preliminary hearing for the four defendants, prosecutors alleged that the motivation for the crime was financial, not racial. Evidence, however, presented at the hearing detailed that two racist remarks were spray painted in the couple's home. Evidence was also presented showing that Jenkins-Pietrzak was sexually assaulted and that Jan was severely beaten. Riverside County investigator Benjamin Ramirez testified that property belonging to the couple was recovered from Miller's residence on Camp Pendleton, including bank cards, a bracelet with the couple's names written in Polish, and Pietrzak's dress blue uniform. Investigators further testified that footprints left at the crime scene were linked to shoes belonging to the suspects.
On May 8, 2009, a recording was played in court of Cox's girlfriend, Melissa Buck, stating that after Cox and the other three accused returned home after the alleged murder, they drank beer and that one of them said, "Good job, E. You earned your stripes tonight." Buck stated that the four had carried out other burglaries prior to the killings and that she had gone with them on one occasion.
In June, Miller acquaintance Justin P. Weissinger testified that several days after the crime Miller had confided in him details of the assault and killing of the Pietrzaks. Weissinger had accompanied Miller and the other suspects on previous burglaries and home invasions.
On August 12, 2009, Riverside County Superior Court Judge Judith Clark ordered the four defendants to be tried for the deaths of the Pietrzaks. The re-arraignment was scheduled for August 26.
The trial of the four was suspended on February 1, 2011 after Kesaun Sykes urinated during a court hearing. The judge ordered a psychological evaluation for Sykes. Sykes' mental competency trial began on May 24, 2011. The jury returned a verdict of mentally fit after two hours of deliberations. In response, the judge ordered criminal proceedings to resume against Sykes and his co-defendants.
Three of the defendants, Kevin Darnell Cox, 25, Emrys Justin John, 23, and Tyrone Miller, 25, went on trial for murder and related charges on Monday, April 8, 2013, at 9 a.m. at the Riverside Hall of Justice. Two separate juries, one for Cox and another for John and Miller, were empaneled to hear the case. The fourth defendant, 25-year-old Kesaun Kedron Sykes, was tried separately because there was not enough space in the Hall of Justice for three juries. If the defendants are convicted, they could face the death penalty.
On June 5, 2013 Cox and John were convicted of two counts of first-degree murder. Miller was convicted of sexual penetration with a foreign object and two counts of first-degree murder.
On June 20, 2013, a jury recommended that Judge Thierbach sentence Tyrone Miller and Emrys John to death, and a separate jury recommended that Cox be sentenced to life without possibility of parole. The fourth defendant, Kesaun Sykes, will go on trial in August, 2013.
Read more about this topic: Murder Of Jan Pawel And Quiana Jenkins Pietrzak
Famous quotes containing the words criminal and/or trials:
“No political party can ever make prohibition effective. A political party implies an adverse, an opposing, political party. To enforce criminal statutes implies substantial unanimity in the community. This is the result of the jury system. Hence the futility of party prohibition.”
—Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822–1893)
“Why, since man and woman were created for each other, had He made their desires so dissimilar? Why should one class of women be able to dwell in luxurious seclusion from the trials of life, while another class performed their loathsome tasks? Surely His wisdom had not decreed that one set of women should live in degradation and in the end should perish that others might live in security, preserve their frappeed chastity, and in the end be saved.”
—Madeleine [Blair], U.S. prostitute and “madam.” Madeleine, ch. 10 (1919)