LOS ANGELES : Jury Urges Life Term for Man Convicted of Murders
A jury recommended life without parole Tuesday for one of two men convicted of stabbing two Antelope Valley teen-agers to death.
Jose Orona, 22, of Palmdale was found guilty of first-degree murder, conspiracy and the special circumstance allegations of murder while lying in wait and multiple murder for the 1992 killings of David Benjamin Scott and Daniel Joseph.
Orona is scheduled to be sentenced Sept. 28 by Superior Court Judge Robert Perry.
Joe Orcasitas, 21, also was convicted of the crimes. The same jury was still deliberating between a recommendation of life without parole and the death penalty for Orcasitas.
The partially decomposed bodies of Scott, 14, and Kufeldt, 15, were found June 22, 1992, beside a desolate road near Llano. The boys had been missing for nearly a month.
Deputy Dist. Atty. Ron Smalstig said Orcasitas fatally stabbed the teen-agers as part of a plan he had worked out with Orona. The prosecutor said the defendants believed that Scott had told authorities that Orcasitas and Orona were involved in a string of burglaries.
Orona and Orcasitas drove off with the boys, tricking them into believing they were going to burglarize a nearby home, Smalstig said.
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