SANTA ANA — A jury on Mondayrecommended a death sentence fora man convicted of murdering his formergirlfriend’s father and sister in a fiery2007 attack on the family’s home thatprosecutors say was an ill-conceived attemptat reuniting with his ex, reportedAssociated Press.Jurors deliberated for about threehours in the penalty phase of IftekharMurtaza’s trial before announcing Thursdaythey had reached a verdict, said OrangeCounty Deputy District AttorneyHoward Gundy. Superior Court JudgeThomas Goethals decided to wait untilMonday to read the verdict.Murtaza, 29, was convicted Nov. 22of two counts of murder, onecount of attempted murder andone count of conspiracy. The12 jurors found there were specialcircumstances of multiplemurders, and murder during akidnapping in the case of onevictim.Authorities say Murtazakilled the relatives of ShayonaDhanak, who was a college freshmanin 2007, after she blamedher decision to end the couple’stwo-year relationship on her devoutHindu family’s oppositionto her dating a Muslim.The family’s home in AnaheimHills was torched, andDhanak’s mother, Leela, wasstabbed and left unconscious ona neighbour’s lawn. The charred,stabbed bodies of Dhanak’s father,Jay, and 20-year-old sister,Karishma, were found in a parkthe next day.Two of Murtaza’s friendsalso were convicted in the killings.Vitaliy Krasnoperov wassentenced to life in prison, andCharles Murphy Jr. is scheduledto be sentenced in December.Prosecutors say an obsessedMurtaza wanted to kill the familyto eliminate them as an obstacleto the relationship anddrive Shayona Dhanak backto his arms. In an online chatwith Krasnoperov, Murtaza firstplanned to hire a hit man. Buthe carried out the killings himselfwith Murphy’s help whenDhanak told him she planned togo on a date with someone else,Gundy said during the trial.Authorities were dispatchedto the inferno at the family’shome in May 2007. Dhanak’s fatherand sister were missing untilthe next morning, when theirbodies were found burning ina park 2 miles (3.2 kilometres)from her dormitory room at theUniversity of California, Irvine.Murtaza was interviewed bypolice several days later and thenarrested at a Phoenix airport witha ticket to his native Bangladeshand more than $11,000 in cash.During the trial, Murtazatestified that he told many peoplehe wanted to kill the Dhanaksbecause he was distraught overthe breakup, but he said he didn’tmean it literally.Courtesy Associated Press
