A former real estate agent who walked into the sales office of mobile home manufacturer Golden Sun Homes in Stanton, Calif., shot the owner’s son and a longtime secretary in the heads, and drove the secretary’s Lexus for eight months before he was arrested, faces the death penalty after being found guilty of two felony counts of murder with special circumstances.
Hilbert Thomas, 42, was issued a real estate salesperson’s license in 2005. The Los Angeles Times reports that the divorced father of two had been hired by a Re/Max brokerage in Lakewood shortly before the 2009 murders of Elizabeth Ann Palmer, 49, and Matthew F. Scott, 42, but was struggling.
“He wasn’t making any money, he did not have a car, and he wanted a nice car. He blew their brains out for a car … Nothing else was taken,” prosecutor Ebrahim Baytieh told jurors. Opening statements in the penalty phase of the trial will be heard next week. Source: latimes.com.