LANCASTER — A 19-year-old man is set to be arraigned in January on murder charges stemming from the shootings of four people as they slept in a Lancaster home, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office announced Tuesday.
Miguel Diego Sandoval is charged with four counts of murder in the Nov. 16 attack on Christine Aca-ac, 25; her brother, Janvi Maquindang, 21; Edwin Garcia, 24, and Matthew Montebello, 23.
The murder charges include the special circumstance allegations of murder while lying in wait and multiple murders, along with allegations that he used a gun.
He is also facing one felony count each of first-degree residential burglary with a person present and arson of an inhabited structure or property, according to the District Attorney’s Office.
Sandoval allegedly burglarized the home where the four victims were sleeping and shot them, then set fire to the house to cover up the crime, according to the District Attorney’s Office.
Aca-ac, Garcia and Maquindang were pronounced dead at the scene. Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies pulled Montebello from the burning house in the 44500 block of North Tabler Avenue, near East Avenue J and Challenger Way, but he died late the following day, authorities said.
Another person was inside the house but was not injured, according to the District Attorney’s Office.
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“We are deeply saddened by the tragic loss of these four lives, including a brother and sister, who were callously shot as they peacefully slept in their beds,” District Attorney George Gascón said in a statement announcing the charges. “This shooting has devastated the Lancaster community, and our hearts go out to the victims’ families, who are suffering from this sudden, incomprehensible loss.”
Sandoval was arrested last Thursday by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department and has remained behind bars since then, jail records show.
He is due in a Lancaster courtroom Jan. 27 for arraignment.