Drifter Sentenced to Die in Slaying of Boy

Saying that drug-taking drifter Brandon Wilson has “damaged this community’s faith in humanity,” a judge sentenced the remorseless killer Thursday to death for the “vicious and heinous” murder of a 9-year-old Northern California boy in an Oceanside restroom.

“You are beyond the pale of salvation,” Superior Court Judge John Einhorn told Wilson, 21, as he accepted the jury’s verdict and rejected an opportunity to instead sentence Wilson to life in prison without parole.

Einhorn noted with disgust the “excitement and giddiness” Wilson displayed while reenacting for police how he ambushed young Matthew Cecchi and slit his throat. The judge called the murder “every parent’s worst nightmare.”

During the recent trial, Wilson, who has a taste for psychedelic drugs and classic literature, testified that he stalked and killed Matthew because God told him to begin a killing rampage. Wilson asked jurors to sentence him to die. He showed no emotion during sentencing.

“He has no remorse,” Wilson’s court-appointed attorney, Curt Owen, said. “He believes what he did was right.”

Matthew’s mother, Sharon, told the judge her son’s murder has destroyed her marriage and left her 4-year-old son crying inconsolably for his slain brother.

“Life is incomplete now,” Cecchi said. “I miss him terribly. I want him to be alive. I want to hold him, to hug him, to kiss him.”

A friend read a statement from the victim’s father, Louis Cecchi, addressed to Wilson: “I hope and pray you rot in hell for eternity.”

Sharon and Louis Cecchi are divorcing amid recriminations by Louis Cecchi that his wife’s family should have done a better job of supervising Matthew during a family reunion a year ago on the beach in Oceanside. Louis Cecchi, who has cancer, had remained in Oroville during the gathering.

Wilson, of St. Croix Falls, Wis., was arrested in Hollywood two days after the murder after he allegedly stabbed a woman during a robbery attempt.