Four Marines Face Death Penalty

**Willowdared** · 01-22-09, 01:05 AM

Death penalty to be sought against 4 Camp Pendleton Marines
By Susan Shroder
6:00 p.m. January 21, 2009

FRENCH VALLEY – The Riverside County District Attorney's Office said Wednesday that it will seek the death penalty against four Camp Pendleton Marines accused of killing a Marine sergeant and his wife in October.

Pvt. Kevin D. Cox and Lance Cpls. Emerys J. John, Tyrone L. Miller and Kesaun K. Sykes are accused in the deaths of Sgt. Jan Pietrzak, 24, and his wife, Quiana Jenkins-Pietrzak, 26, on Oct. 15 in their home in the unincorporated area of Winchester in southwestern Riverside County.

Each had been shot multiple times in the head, and Jenkins-Pietrzak had been sexually assaulted, the District Attorney's Office said.

“The absolute innocence of a beautiful, loving couple compared to the savagery of the actions of these four equally responsible defendants leads to one conclusion – that this is a death-penalty case,” Riverside County District Attorney Rod Pacheco said Wednesday in a written statement.

The four defendants are each charged with two counts of first-degree murder, special circumstances of multiple murder, murder for financial gain, robbery, burglary and rape by a foreign object.

The victims' parents have said they believe the killers were racially prejudiced. Pietrzak was white, and his wife was black.

Riverside County sheriff's deputies went to the couple's residence on Oct. 15 when neither showed up for work that morning. Pietrzak was stationed at Camp Pendleton and his wife worked for the Riverside County Department of Public Health.

In court documents, investigators said Miller confessed to entering the Pietrzaks' home by making threats with a shotgun. The suspects allegedly rummaged through the house for valuables, authorities said.

Miller and John worked in Pietrzak's unit, according to court documents.