A web based date that led to homicide, arson, deceit, extra deaths and one of many worst fires in California’s historical past has lastly ended with a responsible verdict and jail sentence.
Victor Serriteno, 33, was convicted Friday within the 2020 killing of a single mother he had met by means of a relationship app — in addition to the murders of two further victims who burned to demise in a fireplace he set to cowl his tracks, in response to KSW Motion Information.
Serriteno, of Vacaville, was discovered responsible of a number of counts of homicide and arson in Solano County Superior Courtroom and sentenced to 73 years-to-life in state jail, in response to the district lawyer’s workplace.
He had pleaded no contest.
The convicted killer met his sufferer, Priscilla Castro, a 32-year-old mom from Vallejo, on the night of Aug. 16, 2020, after arranging a gathering by means of a relationship app.
It was the final time the mother of a 9-year-old woman was seen alive.
Castro’s household turned involved when she by no means got here again from the date.
Nobody might attain her on her telephone and her social media accounts had gone dormant.
Investigators used her cellphone data to trace down her automobile, a 2007 Mercedes-Benz C230, that they discovered deserted in a rural space.
That very same day, a fireplace was spreading uncontrolled close by.
It could turn out to be referred to as the Markley fireplace, and it killed Douglas Mai, 82, and Leon “James” Bone, 64, when their properties turned engulfed in flames.
The Markley Hearth finally fed into the LNU Lightning Complicated Hearth – one of the damaging conflagrations in California’s historical past, destroying 330,000 acres within the Bay Space.
Two weeks later, after the hearth was extinguished, officers have been capable of establish Castro’s charred stays from a souvenir discovered subsequent to them.
“Although the remains were so badly burned and unrecognizable, there was an angel pendant located in the debris that belonged to Priscilla Castro,” authorities mentioned on the time.
Police dominated Castro’s demise a murder and began an investigation.
Detectives homed in on Serriteno, the final individual to contact her earlier than she died.
He was arrested for the one mom’s demise on Sept. 11, 2020, after which later rearrested for the arson and deaths of Mai and Bone after officers established that the hearth began after Serriteno tried to get rid of Castro’s physique by setting her stays on fireplace, in response to stories.
Though investigators weren’t capable of discern how Serriteno murdered Castro because of the state of her stays, prosecutors mentioned he did it in his dwelling.
“This was one of the most catastrophic fires in the history of Solano County. Lives of those impacted have been forever changed,” Solano County District Lawyer Krishna Abrams mentioned in a press release.
Castro’s members of the family swore they’d get justice for the one mom.
“I knew there were ugly people in the world, but I never knew they would do something to someone so close to us,” her sister, Jasmine Castro, advised native CBS affiliate KOVR TV. “He doesn’t deserve to get away with not one bit of this.”
With Serriteno’s no contest plea, the prosecutors mentioned that’s precisely what the household is getting.
“Although we cannot undo these vicious, brutal, and senseless acts by Defendant Serriteno, hopefully this plea today will provide certainty that the defendant stands convicted, that he is held accountable, and that there is some sense of justice and closure for all of those affected,” Krishna Abrams mentioned in a press release. “Most importantly, he will not be able to harm our community again.”
