Jury Urges Death for Child’s Killer

A Superior Court jury Wednesday agreed with remorseless killer Brandon Wilson that he should die for murdering a 9-year-old boy in a beachfront restroom.

Wilson, 21, a drug-taking drifter from Wisconsin who testified that he killed Matthew Cecchi under orders from God, showed no emotion when the verdict was read.

“If ever there was a case that deserved the death penalty, this was it,” jury foreman Gene Wick, his voice close to breaking, said later.

Judge John Einhorn must decide whether to affirm the jury’s decision or reduce the penalty to life in prison without the chance of parole. The six-man, six-woman jury last week rejected a plea of insanity entered on Wilson’s behalf by his attorney.

Defense attorney Curt Owen said Wilson “is at peace with the verdict. He is quite pleased. It is what he wanted.”

Owen said Wilson had asked his mother and other family members not to plead with the jury to spare his life. Owen said his client enjoyed the attention the trial gave him to “tell his story” about taking LSD and having visions from God.

During five hours of deliberations, jurors asked to see a videotape of a laughing, grinning Wilson reenacting the crime for a police detective soon after his arrest.

Jurors also asked to review Wilson’s testimony when he had said that he had no remorse and wanted to be executed. “My whole purpose in life is to destroy your society,” Wilson had testified.

Deputy Dist. Atty. David Rubin told jurors in the Vista courtroom to remember the grisly details of how Wilson grabbed Matthew from behind, slit his throat and stabbed him in the back.

“It was sadistic, it was cruel,” Rubin said. “He [Wilson] got pleasure from that agony.”

During the penalty phase of the trial, five of Wilson’s former teachers testified that he was a smart but moody youth who appeared traumatized by his parents’ divorce. Wilson testified that he considered killing his mother when he was a teenager.

Matthew, a Little League player and straight-A student who lived in Oroville, Calif., was killed Nov. 14, 1998, during a family gathering in Oceanside. Wilson said he chose Matthew as his victim because he was small and easily overpowered.

Matthew’s father, Lou, a hospital worker, did not attend the trial, explaining that he would have found it impossible to restrain himself from attacking Wilson.