Parolee Convicted of Slaying 3 Teens

A parolee who admitted that he killed three teen-agers, including his half sister, within weeks of his release from prison last May moved a step closer to the gas chamber Wednesday.

A Los Angeles Superior Court jury found Mauricio Rodriquez Silva, 24, guilty of three counts of murder--one in the second degree and two in the first--in the shotgun deaths of Walter P. Sanders and Monique Michelle Hilton, both 16, and the strangulation of Martha Kitzler, 17, Silva’s half sister.

Silva served more than five years in state prison for manslaughter in the 1978 shooting death of a 16-year-old boy and for a subsequent assault on a fellow prisoner.

Because of the so-called “special allegation” of multiple killings, the jury must now decide whether Silva should die or spend the rest of his life in prison without the possibility of parole. Deputy Dist. Atty. Lonnie A. Felker and Michael O. Clark, Silva’s lawyer, will begin presenting evidence in that phase of the trial next Thursday.

Felker said his office will seek the death penalty.

“The defense in the penalty phase,” Clark said, “is going to be primarily presenting (Silva’s) life and background. I feel that it will cause the jury to feel such sympathy toward Silva, because of his horrible upbringing, that that in itself should be enough to spare his life.”

Clark said he believes Silva had no motive for the killings other than “impulsive rage.”

The only issue during the first phase of Silva’s trial was whether he committed first- or second-degree murder, Clark said. If the jury had returned only second-degree counts, Silva would not have become eligible for the death penalty. First-degree murder requires a degree of planning, while murder in the second usually is more impulsive.

A plea bargain worked out for Silva in the 1978 killing became an issue during last year’s campaign for the district attorney’s office. The Los Angeles Herald Examiner reported that then-Dist. Atty. Robert H. Philibosian was involved as a junior prosecutor in a deal that allowed Silva to plead guilty to a lesser charge of manslaughter, resulting in his release last year. Philibosian, who lost the election to Ira Reiner, said the decision was made by his superiors.

Silva was convicted in the current case largely on the strength of two lengthy tape-recorded statements he gave to investigators late last May after he turned himself in to sheriff’s deputies in San Luis Obispo.

In addition, shell casings found near the bodies of Sanders and Hilton were matched with a shotgun found in Silva’s car when he surrendered, Felker said, and a knife found in the same car was linked to wounds inflicted on Kitzler’s body after her death.

Sanders, who met Silva on a bus, was killed by five shotgun blasts in the Mojave Desert, about five miles east of Pearblossom, on May 18, 1984, Felker said. Hilton, whom Silva picked up hitchhiking, was killed in a similar manner six days later. Her body was discovered about 10 miles east of Palmdale. Kitzler was strangled and then stabbed on May 28 in the Hollywood home that she shared with her aunt and uncle. Silva had occasionally stayed at the house after his release from prison on May 7, 1984.