Santa Clarita / Antelope Valley : Men Get Life Terms for Killing 2 Antelope Valley Teen-Agers
Two men convicted of killing a pair of Antelope Valley teen-agers have been sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Joe Orcasitas, 21, was sentenced in Los Angeles Criminal Court on Wednesday to two consecutive life terms and Jose Orona, 21, was given one. They were both found guilty last month of first-degree murder, conspiracy and the special circumstances charges of murder while lying in wait and multiple murder for the 1992 killings of David Benjamin Scott, 14, and Daniel Joseph Kufeldt, 15.
Although a finding of guilty on special circumstances can lead to the death penalty, the jury ruled it out in this case.
“I think (Orcasitas) should have been sentenced to death,” said Deputy Dist. Atty. Ron Smalstig. “But the judge gave him the maximum under the law.”
The partially decomposed bodies of David and Daniel were found June 22, 1992, near a rural road in Llano. The boys had been missing for nearly a month.
Smalstig said Orcasitas fatally stabbed the teen-agers as part of a plan he worked out with Orona to stop the boys from telling authorities that Orcasitas and Orona were involved in a burglary ring.
Orona and Orcasitas tricked the boys into driving off with them by telling them they were going to burglarize a nearby home, Smalstig said.
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