A California man was sentenced Friday to life in prison without the possibility of parole for killing his hair stylist ex-wife and seven others in a shooting rampage at the salon where she worked.
Scott Dekraai received eight consecutive life terms on Friday after he pleaded guilty to murdering her wife, and stylists and customers at Salon Meritage in Seal Beach in 2011.
The 47-year-old former tugboat operator had been locked in a custody battle with Fournier over their 8-year-old son when he entered the salon wearing a bulletproof vest and carrying multiple weapons.
After shooting dead his ex-wife, he turned his guns on the salon owner, stylists and customers, and a man sitting in his car in the parking lot. He was arrested within minutes of the rampage and has been in jail ever since
On Friday, Dekraai was sentenced to life in jail in a courtroom packed with victims’ relatives who wore buttons and shirts printed with photos of those killed.
Scott Dekraai, a 47-year-old former tugboat operator, received eight consecutive life terms for killing his ex-wife and seven others in a 2011 shooting rampage (pictured in court in 2014)
Many sobbed and spoke of their devastating loss. Others told Dekraai they hoped he would rot in prison.
Dekraai told the families he knew his words would never suffice but apologized for what he said was ‘a total loss of self-control.’
He’d also apologized in court last June, telling them: ‘I’m sorry. I’m very, very sorry.’
Dekraai pleaded guilty three years ago but his case dragged on for years due to a scandal over authorities’ use of informants to cull information from Dekraai and others housed in Orange County jails.
While authorities can receive information from informants, they can’t have snitches deliberately seek out information from inmates with legal representation.
Dekraai’s public defender, Scott Sanders, began seeking records about informants after he noticed a jailhouse informant, who had chatted up a previous client, was speaking with Dekraai.
Bethany Webb, the sister of Laura Webb Elody, one of eight people killed by Dekraai gave an emotionally charged statement in June this year
Webb, with Butch Fournier and Craig Burke at Orange County Superior Court in Santa Ana, California
Sanders accused authorities of trying to cover up a snitch program that had trained inmates to sidle up to high-profile defendants.
Orange County Superior Court Judge Thomas Goethals removed the county district attorney’s office from the case after finding deputies lied or withheld evidence about snitches.
Dekraai’s ex-wife was a target of the shooting spree
The state attorney general took over the prosecution and also recommended a death sentence.
But when Goethals discovered that sheriff’s authorities continued to refuse to turn over informant-related records, he removed capital punishment as an option, saying they had jeopardized Dekraai’s right to a fair trial.
Attorney General Xavier Becerra said in a statement prior to sentencing that he would abide by the judge’s decision to preclude capital punishment ‘after thorough evaluation of the particular circumstances of this case.’
‘Our thoughts turn to the victims and families whose lives were shattered by this senseless act of inhumanity,’ Becerra said.
Dekraai, who worked on tugboats after being discharged by the military, is said to have walked with a limp after a boat accident.
He and his ex-wife Fournier had been fighting over custody of their son before he went on the rampage. Fournier had claimed in court filings that he was unstable and physically abusive to her in their marriage.
Dekraai pleaded guilty to eight counts of murder and one count of attempted murder, for which he received a term of seven years to life (pictured in July 2017)
Lydia Sosa, who used to work at the salon, said the suspect had gone through a bitter divorce with one of the women who worked there.
‘They were never happy for a long, long time,’ she told the New York Times. ‘She said he was bitter. He was very bitter.’
Dekraai pleaded guilty to eight counts of murder and one count of attempted murder, for which he received a term of seven years to life. He got 25 years to life for a gun enhancement on each of nine counts.
Those who were killed in the massacre included young mothers, a newlywed woman doing her elderly mother’s hair and a hard-working business owner, all of whom simply happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.
They were named as Laura Elody, Michele Fast, David Caouette, Lucia Kondos, Michelle Fournier, Christy Wilson, Victoria Buzzo and Randy Fannin.
Relatives of the victims have been exhausted by the delays in the case. Some said they wanted prosecutors to agree to a life sentence for Dekraai to avoid years of appeals.
Paul Wilson, whose wife Christy Lynn Wilson was killed, said in June his father and father-in-law are suffering from advanced cancers.
‘It is awful and pathetic to know they may not live to see the coward that took Christy’s life brought to justice,’ Wilson told the judge.