Teen Sentenced to 112 Years for Killing 5 Family Members

SAN DIEGO —  A 17-year-old boy who confessed to killing five members of his family was sentenced Friday to 112 years to life in state prison.

Joshua Jenkins, a student at the Vista Del Mar School in Los Angeles, for emotionally troubled teenagers, hacked and knifed his parents, grandparents and sister to death in a Vista condominium on Feb. 2 and 3, 1996. A jury rejected Jenkins’ attorney’s assertions that he was insane.

Judge John Einhorn called the murders “vicious, savage and almost incomprehensible.” Jenkins set fire to the condominium before fleeing in the family car.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Mark Pettine said Jenkins killed his family in revenge for his parents’ decision to send him to Vista Del Mar, a boarding school.

Sandy Sulzman, Jenkins’ aunt, had asked Einhorn to give her nephew the maximum sentence, which he did. “Joshua destroyed my family and threw away his life,” she said.