Man Gets Life in Prison in Charcoal Grill Deaths

A Pico Rivera father was sentenced to life in prison Wednesday for intentionally asphyxiating five of his children by lighting a charcoal grill near them as they slept.

Adair Javier Garcia, 34, told police in a videotaped interview that he was also trying to commit suicide on the night of Feb. 19, 2002, when he made sure that poisonous carbon monoxide fumes from the grill would seep through the home he shared with his six children, according to testimony and evidence presented in his recent trial in Norwalk. One child survived.

A jury convicted Garcia of five first-degree murders and one count of attempted murder but did not order capital punishment, which prosecutors had been seeking. Instead, jurors voted for a sentence of life without the possibility of parole, which Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge John A. Torribio imposed Wednesday.

“We thought it was a case where Mr. Garcia should have received the death penalty. The jury disagreed with us,” said Sandi Gibbons, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office. “Unfortunately, that doesn’t bring back the five children that died. But he’ll have a long time to think about what he did.”

But Garcia’s family said the jury was right to spare his life.

“Our family is also scarred and destroyed by this tragedy ... but we believe in Adair,” said his sister, Martha Garcia. “He’s very remorseful.”

During the trial, Deputy Dist. Atty. Victor Rodriguez presented evidence that Garcia had been despondent after his estranged wife, Adriana Arreola, left him. Before Garcia put the children to bed and lighted the barbecue grill in the hallway, he tape-recorded the kids telling their mother what they did at school that day and saying goodbye. He also recorded an angry message to his wife, then disconnected the smoke detector and phone.

The next day, paramedics found Brenda, 10, Jonathan, 7, and Anthony, 2, dead inside the house. Cecilia, 4, and Vanessa, 6, died in the next two days. Only Kassandra -- who was 9 at the time -- survived.

Defense attorneys Patricia Mulligan and Jill Thomas argued that Garcia was a doting father who was in a deep depression over his failing marriage and wasn’t thinking rationally.