A jury found Thursday that a Los Angeles man was sane when he fatally stabbed his girlfriend’s 11-year-old son in front of the boy’s younger brother.
The Los Angeles Superior Court jury convicted Rineson Curtis Adams on Jan. 15 of first-degree murder in the May 27, 2013, death of the boy, identified in the criminal complaint only as “Jai L.”
Jurors also found the 29-year-old man guilty of child abuse involving the boy’s 5-year-old brother, who witnessed the crime.
Deputy District Attorney Carolina Lugo told jurors that Adams made breakfast for his live-in girlfriend’s two sons that morning, then went into their bedroom with a kitchen knife and stabbed the 11-year-old in front of his brother. The boys’ mother heard her sons’ 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.
Adams is facing at least 50 years to life in state prison, with sentencing set for Feb. 11.
—City News Service