Man Found Guilty Of Murders Of Lancaster Woman, Her 3 Daughters

LANCASTER (CBSLA.com) — A 24-year-old man was convicted Tuesday of murdering a woman and her three young daughters, then setting the family's Lancaster home on fire.

Jurors deliberated for three hours before finding Corey Lynn King of Altadena guilty on four counts of first-degree murder for the Sept. 9, 2008 killings of Sonya Harris, 43, and her daughters, Kayla Clark, 9, Melinda Harris, 11, and Ebony Horton, 14, according to Deputy District Attorney Robert Sherwood.

The panel found true the special circumstance allegations of multiple murders and murder involving the infliction of torture involving Harris and her two older daughters, and also convicted him on one count each of arson of an inhabited structure and grand theft auto.

The jurors are scheduled to consider whether King should be sentenced to death or life in prison without the possibility of parole next Tuesday.

Harris was stabbed more than 50 times and her 14-year-old daughter was stabbed more than 60 times, according to trial testimony. The woman's 11-year-old daughter was beaten, stomped to death, and then stabbed, and the 9-year-old was strangled, the prosecutor said.

King, who was a family friend, then drove to a nearby gas station, bought gasoline, and poured it over the victims' bodies and throughout the house before setting it on fire.

Sherwood said an argument might have preceded the murders and Harris' three daughters killed because they were witnesses to their mother's killing.

King was arrested the day after the bodies were found inside the burning home in the 1500 block of East Avenue J-3. He surrendered to sheriff's officials after hearing his name mentioned in connection with the fire, which was set after the killings.

(©2014 CBS Local Media, a division of CBS Radio Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Wire services contributed to this report.)