Politics & Government

Marines Carried out Killings of French Valley Couple 'As a Group,' Prosecutor Says

Opening statements began Monday in the trial of three Marines accused in the 2008 killings of a Marine sergeant and his new wife in their French Valley home.

A Marine sergeant and his bride were murdered in their French Valley residence during a home invasion perpetrated by four members of the same squadron to which the man belonged, a prosecutor told a jury today.

"They all invaded this house and committed the robbery as a group," Riverside County Deputy District Attorney Daniel DeLimon said in his opening statement. "They committed these killings as a group."

Kevin Darnell Cox, 25, Emrys Justin John, 23, and Tyrone Miller, 25, could each face the death penalty if convicted in the Oct. 15, 2008, slayings of 24-year-old Janek Pietrzak and his 26-year-old wife, Quiana Faye Jenkins- Pietrzak.

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A fourth defendant, 25-year-old will be tried in August.

"This young couple was executed inside a house they had just purchased," DeLimon said. "They had been married 68 days. They were hog-tied, bound at the hands and feet, and shot execution-style. Quiana was sexually assaulted in front of her husband."

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There are two separate juries hearing evidence in the case -- one for Cox,  whose attorneys were expected to make their opening statement on Tuesday, and another for John and Miller.

DeLimon told Cox's jury that the defendant left behind "numerous" clues pointing to his culpability, which he also later confessed to sheriff's investigators.

The defendant's shoe prints were located inside the victims' residence, and his then-girlfriend, Melissa Buck, received Quiana's wedding band and other jewelry as gifts, according to DeLimon.

"He may try to claim he was just a lookout for the others," the prosecutor said. "But there was substantial participation by this defendant."

Janek Pietrzak was a helicopter mechanic at Camp Pendleton and worked with John and Miller, according to DeLimon. It was unclear why the defendants allegedly targeted the newlyweds, though DeLimon said the men later told associates they went to the house expecting to find "money and guns."

Cox told sheriff's investigators that he and his co-defendants initially tried to find an unlocked back entrance to the two-story residence at 31319 Bermuda Ave., but couldn't, opting instead to simply ring the front door bell.

According to Cox's story, he rang the bell twice shortly after 1 a.m., and Pietrzak came downstairs in a T-shirt and boxer shorts. Cox told investigators that he stepped back and let his co-defendants confront the young Marine.

According to DeLimon, Pietrzak was armed with a knife when he deactivated his house alarm and opened the door. The defendants, armed with shotguns, jabbed the barrels into the victim, moving him back from the door, at which point they began to pummel him, DeLimon alleged.

He said bruises in the form of shoe impressions on Pietrzak's back indicate he was kicked and stomped once his attackers got him on the ground.

For close to 90 minutes, the men ransacked the home, packing stolen items into suitcases and loading them into John's Jeep Cherokee, according to the prosecution.

DeLimon showed photos of the victims, bound and gagged on the living room floor. Quiana's eyes and mouth were wrapped with tape, giving her an appearance that Cox told investigators reminded him of a "mummy." According to DeLimon, Miller and Sykes stripped the helpless woman and used a vibrator they found in the couple's bathroom to violate her vaginally and anally.

Miller, the ring leader, ordered John to execute the victims using a 9mm Beretta handgun, which he did, shooting each of them twice in the head, using cushions to suppress the gunfire, DeLimon alleged.

The defendants attempted to throw authorities off by making it appear as though the slayings had been racially motivated, painting the words "Nigger Lover" in several places throughout the house, even on Pietrzak's body, the prosecutor alleged.

An unsuccessful attempt was also made to set the house ablaze by igniting materials in the kitchen and leaving the gas from the stove running, DeLimon said.

Over the ensuing two weeks, fellow Marines who allegedly overheard the foursome bragging about the killings called the sheriff's department, agreeing to meet with detectives away from the Marine base for fear of retaliation, the prosecutor said.

He said investigators obtained search warrants for the defendants' various living quarters and recovered almost all of the stolen property.

In Miller's Camp Pendleton home, investigators found four spent 9mm bullet cartridges and two 9mm pistols, as well as Pietrzak's dress blue Marine uniform, according to the prosecution.

The trial is expected to last a month, with a penalty phase to follow if the defendants are found guilty of first-degree murder and jurors find true special circumstance allegations of killing in the course of a robbery and taking more than one life in the same crime. The defendants also face a sentence-enhancing allegation that a sexual assault occurred during the robbery.

All of the men are being held without bail at the Southwest Detention Center in Murrieta.

—City News Service


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