Fatal stabbing of brother in front of brother stirs insanity phase next

A Los Angeles man was convicted Friday of fatally stabbing his girlfriend’s 11-year-old son in front of the boy’s younger brother.

A Los Angeles Superior Court jury deliberated about four hours before finding Rineson Curtis Adams, 29, guilty of first-degree murder involving the May 27, 2013, death of the boy, identified in the criminal complaint only as “Jai L.”

Jurors also found Adams guilty of child abuse involving the boy’s 5-year-old brother, who witnessed the crime.

The panel is due back in court Wednesday for the start of the trial’s sanity phase, in which they will be asked to determine if Adams was insane at the time of the crime.

In the trial’s opening statements, Deputy District Attorney Carolina Lugo told jurors that Adams made breakfast for his live-in girlfriend’s two sons that morning, then went into the boys’ bedroom with a kitchen knife and stabbed the 11-year-old in front of his brother. The boys’ mother heard her son’s cries and got out of bed, the prosecutor said.

Deputy Public Defender Eric Duvernay told jurors that it was a “case about mental illness.”

He said his client “acted from psychotic thinking and a delusion,” not with premeditation. The defense attorney told the panel that he believed they would find that Adams was insane at the time of the crime.

— City News Service