Dad Pleads Not Guilty in Carbon Monoxide Deaths of 5 Children

A 30-year-old Pico Rivera man pleaded innocent Tuesday to killing five of his six children by lighting a charcoal grill inside his house last month as they slept.

Adair Javier Garcia will return to Whittier Superior Court on April 15 for a preliminary hearing where prosecutors may announce that they will seek the death penalty.

Garcia is eligible for the death penalty because of three special circumstances: lying in wait, murder by administration of poison and multiple murder.

He also is charged with attempted murder involving a sixth child, Kassandra, who was hospitalized with severe carbon monoxide poisoning.

The 9-year-old was released from Childrens Hospital Los Angeles a week after the incident.

Garcia is being held without bail at Twin Towers Correctional Facility, where he is under suicide watch and is being kept away from other inmates for his own safety.

Accused of Letting Charcoal Burn Indoors

Garcia is accused of igniting a charcoal grill Feb. 20 in the family’s two-bedroom home in the 9600 block of Washington Boulevard in Pico Rivera and leaving it to burn as the children slept, authorities said.

Garcia’s mother-in-law found him and the children the next morning when she arrived to baby-sit.

The family was unconscious from the grill’s carbon monoxide fumes. Brenda, 10; Jonathan, 7; and Anthony, 2, died at the scene. Cecilia, 4, died later that day and Vanessa, 6, died the next day.

Firefighters initially assumed that the charcoal grill was being used to warm the house, but later investigators determined that it was intentionally set.

The night before, Garcia put his children to bed, lighted the barbecue grill and allowed it to burn for hours, said Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Lt. Don Bear.

Investigators said Garcia was depressed about his rocky marriage. His wife, Adriana Arreola, had moved out of the home at least a week before the deaths, Bear said.

Garcia appeared briefly in court Tuesday, spoke only to confirm his not-guilty plea, and occasionally looked into the crowd, where a few family members sat.

Since the killings, Garcia’s family has not spoken publicly about the tragedy.

A private memorial March 2 and burial for the five children at Rose Hills Memorial Cemetery in Whittier was attended only by family, friends and Sheriff’s Department investigators.