San Diego

The jury in the triple-murder trial of Christopher Box and Manuel Flores began deliberations Tuesday afternoon in a case in which the defendants are blaming each other for the brutal killings of a woman, her 3-year-old son and a male roommate.

The Superior Court jury began deliberations after hearing closing arguments from the prosecutor and the two defense attorneys, who all agree that Box and Flores were involved in the incident at a duplex on Clairemont Mesa Boulevard.

In her summation of the case, Deputy Dist. Atty. Lorraine Rooney told the jury that both defendants were “equally responsible” for the murders of April Louise Gilhousen, 20; her son, 3-year-old Bryan Robert Gilhousen, and 29-year-old Kevin Morton Chandler, who also lived at the duplex.

Rooney encouraged the panel to convict the pair on three first-degree murder charges, as well as counts of conspiracy, robbery, burglary and attempted murder.

The prosecution theory in the case is that Box and Flores conspired to steal 1 pound of marijuana from the slain woman. Box and Flores allegedly killed the occupants of the house to accomplish the theft, and Box also allegedly attacked a man who may have walked up to house just as Chandler was being killed, according to Rooney.

The district attorney’s office is seeking a special-circumstances allegation against Box, meaning he could be sentenced to death if convicted. Flores cannot be sentenced to death because he was a juvenile at the time of the slayings.