A man who shot and killed his stepmother and half-brother in Imperial Beach was sentenced Friday to two consecutive terms of life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Marco Antonio Valadez Jr., 50, pleaded guilty to two first-degree murder counts and a special circumstance allegation of committing multiple murders for the 2021 slayings of Raquel Pitsenberger, 55, and her son Marco “Tony” Valadez Jr., 36.
Sheriff’s deputies found the victims inside a home in the 1300 block of Fern Avenue the afternoon of Dec. 4. Pitsenberger died at the scene, while her son died at a hospital.
Valadez was arrested in Mexico and extradited to the U.S. less than two weeks later.
Around the time of his arrest, prosecutors said the killings were intended to cover up sexual crimes he committed two days earlier.
The San Diego County District Attorney’s Office said then in a statement that the murders stemmed from a confrontation “in which (Valadez) was trying to silence family members who were potential witnesses” to an alleged sexual assault of an 18-year-old woman.
Though the felony sexual abuse charges Valadez faced were dismissed as part of his plea to the murder counts, prosecutors and family members at the sentencing referred to the woman as a sexual assault victim.
The defendant, convicted in 1998 of forcible rape, was also sentenced to a four-year concurrent prison term on Friday for a separate case of failing to register as a sex offender.
