GHASTLY: A jury says Emrys John (left) and Tyrone Miller should die for the murder of newlyweds Sgt. Jan Pietrzak and wife Quiana. (
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A California jury recommended the death penalty yesterday for two US Marines who killed a Brooklyn-raised Iraq war veteran and his young wife after brutally raping her while forcing him to watch.
Tyrone Miller, 25, and Emrys John, 23, were convicted earlier this month of the savage 2008 attack on newlyweds Sgt. Jan Pietrzak, 24, and his wife Quiana Jenkins-Pietrzak, 26, in their Riverside County home.
Prosecutors portrayed Miller as the crime’s mastermind, while John fired the fatal shots. A third attacker, Kevin Cox, 25, should get life in prison with no possibility of parole, the jury said.
All three of the twisted thugs were former Marines and had worked with Pietrzak — who grew up in Bensonhurst — while stationed at Camp Pendleton, according to CBS News.
The mothers of the murdered couple – who wore dog tags printed with a photo of their dead children – said there’s no closure.
“The only thing that closed was the casket on our children,” Glenda Faye Jenkins told the Press Enterprise newspaper. “I still have no child. I still have no son-in-law. My house is still quiet. My life is still empty.”
The sergeant’s mother said she is still haunted by how her son was killed.
“It’s not only that they died,” Henryka Varga told the newspaper. “It’s the way they died. You just cannot walk away from that. It’s always with you.”
The attackers had robbery on their minds when they stormed into the couple’s home, prosecutors have said.
Cox told investigators he rang the doorbell twice at 1 a.m., which caused Pietrzak to turn off the alarm and come to the door, according to CBS.
The evil thugs beat Pietrzak into submission, then tied him up so the doomed Marine had no choice but to watch them violate his bride.
Deputy District Attorney Daniel DeLimon said John shot both victims execution-style with a 9mm handgun, CBS said.
The couple’s bodies were found in their ransacked home several hours later. Jenkins- Pietrzak was naked and had been tied up. The men had even desecrated her body by spray-painting it, according to the Press Enterprise. Her husband had been gagged with a sock.
Jenkins-Pietrzak was a counselor with a local infant care program. The tragic couple had been married for only two months, according to the LA Times.
Miller testified that he was angry with Pietrzak because the sergeant told him that he had no chance of being promoted.
A fourth attacker, Kesaun Kedron Sykes, is awaiting trial.
Miller, John, and Cox will be sentenced later this summer.