SANTA ANA, Calif. — A U.S. Army mechanic who killed three people at a Southern California home because he believed a man there was molesting a teenager has been sentenced to life in prison without chance of parole.
Twenty-three-year-old Joshua Acosta was sentenced Friday.
Acosta acknowledged that he used a shotgun to kill Christopher and Jennifer Yost and a friend who was staying at their Fullerton home in 2016.
The couple’s 6- and 9-year-old daughters found their parents’ bodies.
At trial, Jennifer Yost’s 17-year-old daughter testified that her stepfather had molested her for years beginning when she was 7 years old and she’d planned to run away with Acosta’s help.
The teenager testified under immunity that she let Acosta into her parents’ home. Acosta claimed she didn’t know he planned to kill them.
