Riverside Jury Recommends Death In Marine Slaying

RIVERSIDE (CBS/AP) — Riverside County jurors have recommended the death penalty for two of the three men convicted of killing a Camp Pendleton Marine sergeant and his wife in 2008.

Prosecutors say jurors returned death sentences for 25-year-old Tyrone Miller and 23-year-old Emrys John on Thursday.

Along with 25-year-old Kevin Cox, the three ex-Marines were convicted of murder earlier this month.

Jurors recommended Cox serve life without possibility of parole.

The trio went to the French Valley home of Sgt. Jan Pietrzak to rob him on October 15, 2008.

They attacked Pietrzak, 24, and sexually assaulted his 26-year-old wife, Quiana Faye Jenkins-Pietrzak, before killing the newlyweds, who were married 68 days.

According to Deputy District Attorney Daniel DeLimon, Cox told investigators he rang the doorbell twice shortly after 1 a.m. Pietrzak came downstairs in a T-shirt and boxers, deactivated his house alarm and opened the front door. The defendants, armed with shotguns, beat the young sergeant into submission.

DeLimon said Miller and Sykes stripped Quiana and used a vibrator they found in the couple's bathroom to violate her sexually. John shot the victims execution-style with a 9mm handgun, prosecutors said.

Miller testified that he was displeased with Pietrzak because the sergeant had told the lance corporal that his chances of being promoted to corporal were nil.

All three defendants had served in a helicopter maintenance squadron with Pietrzak at one time while they were stationed at Camp Pendleton.

A fourth defendant, 25-year-old Kesaun Kedron Sykes, is awaiting trial.

(TM and © Copyright 2013 CBS Local Media, a division of CBS Radio Inc. and its relevant subsidiaries. CBS RADIO and EYE Logo TM and Copyright 2013 CBS Broadcasting Inc. Used under license. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)