Statements of Marines Accused in Slayings to be Played in Court

The videotaped police statements of three men accused in the slayings of a Marine sergeant and his wife will be played tomorrow for jurors.

Kevin Darnell Cox, 25, Emrys Justin John, 23, and Tyrone Miller, 25, could each face the death penalty if convicted in the Oct. 15, 2008, deaths of 24-year-old Janek Pietrzak and his 26-year-old wife, Quiana Faye Jenkins- Pietrzak.

There are two separate juries -- one for Cox, and another for John and Miller -- hearing evidence in the case. A fourth defendant, 25-year-old Kesaun Kedron Sykes, will be tried in August.

All of the men are charged with first-degree murder and special circumstance allegations of killing during the course of a robbery and taking multiple lives in the same crime.

The trial began April 8.

Riverside County Deputy District Attorney Daniel DeLimon alleged the defendants planned and executed the killings together and shared equal responsibility.

Janek Pietrzak was a helicopter mechanic at Camp Pendleton and worked with John and Miller, according to DeLimon. It was unclear why the defendants allegedly targeted the newlyweds. DeLimon said the men later told associates they went to the house expecting to find "money and guns."

Cox allegedly admitted to sheriff's investigators that he and his codefendants initially tried to find an unlocked back entrance to the two-story French Valley residence at 31319 Bermuda Ave., but couldn't, opting instead to simply ring the front door bell.

According to Cox's story, he rang the bell twice shortly after 1 a.m., and Pietrzak came downstairs in a T-shirt and boxer shorts.

According to DeLimon, Pietrzak was armed with a knife when he deactivated his house alarm and opened the door. The defendants, armed with shotguns, jabbed the barrels into the victim, moving him back from the door and pummeling him, DeLimon alleged.

For close to 90 minutes, the men ransacked the home, packing stolen items into suitcases and loading them into John's Jeep Cherokee, according to the prosecution.

DeLimon showed pictures of the victims, bound and gagged on the living room floor. Quiana's eyes and mouth were wrapped with tape, giving her an appearance that Cox told investigators reminded him of a "mummy." According to DeLimon, Miller and Sykes stripped the helpless woman and used a vibrator they found in the couple's bathroom to violate her sexually.

Miller, the ring leader, allegedly ordered John to execute the victims using a 9mm Beretta handgun, which he did, shooting each of them twice in the head, using cushions to suppress the gunfire, according to DeLimon.

He alleged the defendants attempted to throw authorities off by making it appear as though the slayings had been racially motivated, painting racial epithets throughout the house. Quiana was black, and her husband white, a native of Poland.

Fellow Camp Pendleton Marines who either overhead the defendants bragging about the killings or were told directly passed the information to authorities, leading to an investigation, during which numerous items of evidence -- including the dead couple's wedding bands -- were seized at the defendants' residences, according to the prosecution.

All of the men are being held without bail at the Southwest Detention Center in Murrieta.

—City News Service