A 22-year-old is facing life in prison without the possibility of parole after being convicted of murdering two of his cousins and trying to kill a third man at a West Covina apartment complex.
A Pomona jury found Michael Mariano Jr. guilty of two counts of first-degree murder for the Nov. 2, 2022, shooting deaths of Maliki Foust, 22, and Majarion Foust, along with the attempted murder of a third man who was not injured.
Jurors also found true the special circumstance allegations of lying in wait and multiple murders, along with allegations that he discharged a firearm causing death, according to Deputy District Attorney Phil Stirling.
Mariano is due back in court for sentencing April 22.
The prosecutor argued that Mariano committed the crime because he felt disrespected by his cousins, while defense attorney Emily Rosenfelt contended that the shootings were done in self-defense after one of his cousins had shown him a gun during an earlier confrontation in a bathroom at their grandmother’s house and that they showed up at his apartment complex after he told them not to stop by.
The defense lawyer told the jury that her client thought he saw Majarion hold up a gun while at the apartment complex, but “didn’t want to kill anyone” when he opened fire.
“You heard from Michael that he didn’t want his cousins to die,” Rosenfelt said of her client’s testimony. “He regrets that this happened.”
Rosenfelt urged jurors to acquit Mariano of murder, saying that they had the option of acquitting him but that he would not be “getting off scot-free” if he was convicted of the lesser crime of voluntary manslaughter.
In his rebuttal argument, the deputy district attorney said, “There’s motive here. He was angry with them.”
Stirling argued that Mariano — who was wearing a mask, hooded jacket and gloves — “engaged in a surprise attack” and then lied under oath to jurors about the circumstances of the crime.
“There’s no way in good faith that he believed he shot them in self-defense,” the prosecutor said, adding that there was no evidence other than the defendant’s testimony that the earlier bathroom confrontation had ever occurred.
Mariano was arrested in March 2023 and has remained behind bars since then, jail records show.