San Marcos

A jury convicted a former Vista man of two counts of first-degree murder Tuesday in the 1986 drug-related deaths of two men who were riddled with bullets on a San Marcos road.

Keith Robert Lugo, 25, was found guilty of killing Robert Pharoah III, 26, and Timothy Ridgewell, 24, on July 9, 1986, on an unpaved section of road on Sarver Lane and Vista Merriam in San Marcos.

The same San Diego Superior Court jury deadlocked in favor of conviction of Lugo’s co-defendant, Michael Edward Smith, 29, formerly of San Diego, who was ordered to return to court today to get a date for retrial.

The jury began deliberations two days before Thanksgiving after a monthlong trial.

Judge Laura Hammes declared a mistrial in Smith’s case and set sentencing for Lugo for Jan. 8.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Craig Rooten said Lugo could receive a maximum of 51-years-to-life in state prison. He now is serving a seven-year sentence for a methamphetamine conviction.

Robert Lugo, the defendant’s father who now lives out of state but formerly lived in Vista, said he didn’t think his son got a fair trial because the jury was allowed to hear evidence about his son’s prior methamphetamine conviction.

Smith is serving a 20-year sentence for manslaughter in another state, but the jury was not told about his conviction.

Rooten said the victims were killed because of false suspicions that they were “snitches” about a drug operation.

A nearby resident, Robert Henry, testified he heard repeated shots around 4:35 a.m. in the area where the bodies were found. The victims were also stabbed.