Two girls were stabbed Tuesday morning in Palmdale. Authorities took a possible suspect into custody. (KTLA.com) |
LITTLEROCK, Calif. -- A teenager charged in the 2010 slashing death of his 11-year-old cousin and a knife attack on her 14-year-old sister was sentenced to prison Thursday.
A judge sentenced Lonnie Lee Liner to 11 years, plus 15 years to life in accordance with a plea deal.
Liner pleaded no contest on March 28 to one count each of second-degree murder and attempted second-degree murder.
The defendant, who was 16 at the time of the crime, was charged as an adult.
Liner attacked the girls in their Littlerock home on the morning of Aug. 3, 2010.
11-year-old Dahial Lanarus' throat was slashed.
She died inside the home.
Her sister suffered multiple knife wounds, but managed to escape.
Curtis Hallenbeck, a neighbor, said he heard a girl screaming hysterically to help her cousins as she ran down the street.
"She was screaming about her cousin ... that she believed had been responsible," he said.
Hallenbeck told KTLA-TV that he followed her to the house and found one of the victims stabbed in the neck and leg.
Los Angeles County Sheriff's deputies set up a perimeter after talking to neighbors and found Liner hiding in a nearby junkyard.
The motive for the stabbing appears to be some sort of "emotional entanglement" between the teen and at least one of the girls, according to deputies on the scene although no official motive has been released.
Littlerock is a community of about 1,400 people some 70 miles northeast of Los Angeles.
A judge sentenced Lonnie Lee Liner to 11 years, plus 15 years to life in accordance with a plea deal.
Liner pleaded no contest on March 28 to one count each of second-degree murder and attempted second-degree murder.
The defendant, who was 16 at the time of the crime, was charged as an adult.
Liner attacked the girls in their Littlerock home on the morning of Aug. 3, 2010.
11-year-old Dahial Lanarus' throat was slashed.
She died inside the home.
Her sister suffered multiple knife wounds, but managed to escape.
Curtis Hallenbeck, a neighbor, said he heard a girl screaming hysterically to help her cousins as she ran down the street.
"She was screaming about her cousin ... that she believed had been responsible," he said.
Hallenbeck told KTLA-TV that he followed her to the house and found one of the victims stabbed in the neck and leg.
Los Angeles County Sheriff's deputies set up a perimeter after talking to neighbors and found Liner hiding in a nearby junkyard.
The motive for the stabbing appears to be some sort of "emotional entanglement" between the teen and at least one of the girls, according to deputies on the scene although no official motive has been released.
Littlerock is a community of about 1,400 people some 70 miles northeast of Los Angeles.
