San Marcos

A 25-year-old man who was convicted of murdering two men in San Marcos in 1986 was sentenced Tuesday to 51 years to life in state prison.

Keith Lugo, formerly of Vista, received consecutive sentences on two first-degree murder charges stemming from a drug-related incident that led to the July 9, 1986, killings of Robert Pharoah III, 27, and Timothy Ridgewell, 24, both from East County.

Superior Court Judge Laura Hammes also ordered Lugo to pay $5,200 in restitution to relatives of the two dead men.

A jury found Lugo guilty Nov. 27, but deadlocked on the same charges filed against co-defendant Michael Edward Smith, 29, of San Diego. Smith is set to be retried next Wednesday.

Pharoah and Ridgewell were found shot and stabbed to death on an unpaved section of Sarver Lane in San Marcos. A neighbor said he heard gunshots at 4:35 a.m. the day of the killings.

Lugo’s attorney, C. Logan McKechnie, unsuccessfully argued that Lugo should be given a new trial or at least have the verdicts reduced to second-degree murder. He also asked that the two murder sentences be concurrent, not consecutive.

During the trial, evidence was presented to show that Lugo was convicted of a methamphetamine offense and that the victims were killed after suspicions were raised about whether they were “snitches.”

Hammes said in court that Lugo’s testimony showed he lacked remorse for the killings and that there was evidence of premeditation.