Prosecutors Seek Death in Marine Case
Thursday, Jan 22, 2009 | Updated 6:34 AM PDT
Court records indicate four Marines acknowledged they had roles in the robbery, sexual assault and murder of an Camp Pendleton-based Iraq veteran and his wife last month in Riverside County.
RIVERSIDE, Calif. -- Riverside County prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for four Camp Pendleton-based Marines charged in the execution-style killings of a fellow Marine and his wife.
Sgt. Jan Pietrzak and his wife, Quiana Jenkins-Pietrzak, were found gagged, tied and shot in the head Oct. 15 in the living room of their Winchester home. Investigators say the house had been ransacked and a fire had been set in an apparent effort to destroy evidence. Detectives said Quiana had been sexually assaulted.
A prosecutor said the four defendants -- Lance Cpl. Emrys John, 18, of Maryland; Lance Cpl. Tyrone Miller, 20, of North Carolina; Pvt. Kevin Cox, 20, of Tennessee, and Lance Cpl. Kesaun Sykes, 21, of California -- are eligible for the death penalty because of the multiple murder and other special circumstance charges they face on top of their first-degree murder charges.
Pietrzak was stationed at Camp Pendleton, where he worked as a helicopter airframe mechanic and supervised two of the defendants.
