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California salon killings

<h2 class="article-title" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: adelle-sans, sans-serif; font-size: 35px; line-height: 38px; margin: 0px 0px 4px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 3px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: red;">Man pleads guilty in California salon killings</span></h2>
<img src="http://i.huffpost.com/gen/1773949/thumbs/a-SCOTT-DEKRAAI-640x420.jpg" /><h3>
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.45em;"><span style="color: purple; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) - A disgruntled father embroiled in a custody dispute with his ex-wife pleaded guilty Friday to murdering her and seven others in a shooting rampage at a California hair salon.</span></span></h3>
<div class="article-content" data-enablerefresh="true" data-refreshcnt="3" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; line-height: 1.45em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 10px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Scott Dekraai, a 44-year-old former tugboat operator, looked straight at the judge as he entered his pleas to eight counts of murder and one count of attempted murder with special circumstances and enhancements in a courtroom packed with the tearful relatives of his victims.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; line-height: 1.45em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 10px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">"After today you will not be an alleged killer anymore, you are going to be a convicted murderer," Judge Thomas M. Goethals told Dekraai.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; line-height: 1.45em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 10px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for Dekraai, who had been locked in a bitter custody dispute with ex-wife Michelle Fournier over their 8-year-old son when he entered Salon Meritage in Seal Beach in October 2011 wearing a bulletproof vest and armed with three weapons.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; line-height: 1.45em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 10px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Dekraai shot and killed Fournier before turning his guns on the salon owner, stylists and customers. On his way out, he killed a man who was sitting in his car in the parking lot. Police arrested Dekraai within minutes of the rampage, which left eight dead and one wounded.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; line-height: 1.45em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 10px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">"'I know what I did,'" he told an arresting officer, according to a police affidavit.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; line-height: 1.45em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 10px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Assistant Public Defender Scott Sanders said Dekraai wanted to enter the plea to spare the victims a lengthy trial while he continues to fight a potential death sentence.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; line-height: 1.45em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 10px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">On Friday, relatives dabbed their eyes and cried quietly in the courtroom as the judge read the names of the victims.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; line-height: 1.45em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 10px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">"It's just a real slap of reality," Paul Wilson, whose wife was killed in the attack, said after the hearing.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; line-height: 1.45em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 10px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Wilson also said he didn't buy the reason Dekraai gave for entering the plea and suspected it had more to do with strategy than remorse.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; line-height: 1.45em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 10px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">"This is not a compassionate man, or I wouldn't be standing here today," Wilson told reporters.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; line-height: 1.45em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 10px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">After the hearing, Sanders said that Dekraai had been talking about changing his plea for some time, and he was relieved to have done so.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; line-height: 1.45em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 10px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">"He's not doing this for a tactical reason," Sanders said. "He believes this is absolutely the right thing to do."</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; line-height: 1.45em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 10px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In his two decades working at the Orange County public defender's office, Sanders said he has never had a capital murder defendant plead guilty.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; line-height: 1.45em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 10px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The case has long focused on whether Dekraai should be sentenced to life in prison or death, with victims' relatives divided over his fate.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; line-height: 1.45em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 10px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas said his office would continue to seek death for Dekraai to honor the wishes of some of the victims' relatives and his responsibility to county residents.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; line-height: 1.45em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 10px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">"This is a horrendous case. This is a multiple-murder case against innocent and defenseless victims, and the only thing that might even approach justice in a case like this is for us to seek the death penalty," he said.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; line-height: 1.45em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 10px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Some victims' relatives said they hope to witness Dekraai's execution someday. Others said they'd rather see him suffer out his life in prison than be put quietly to sleep - a stark contrast to the violent death their loved ones faced.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; line-height: 1.45em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 10px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">"I'd like him to find a more eye-for-an-eye sort of demise in general population," said Bethany Webb, whose sister was killed and whose mother was the sole survivor of the attack. "He's a coward. Those guys are going to eat him up."</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; line-height: 1.45em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 10px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Dekraai, who was injured in a boating accident in 2007, is due back in court on Monday for a hearing underway on allegations by Sanders that authorities misused jailhouse informants in violation of Dekraai's constitutional rights, and tried to conceal related evidence.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; line-height: 1.45em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 10px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Sanders has asked Goethals to recuse the district attorney's office and remove the death penalty as an option in the case over the allegations, which prosecutors have denied.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; line-height: 1.45em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 10px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Goethals said he expects to rule on the allegations in about four to six weeks. If he doesn't strike the death penalty, a penalty phase to determine whether Dekraai ought to face a life in prison or a death sentence would follow.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; line-height: 1.45em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 10px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In the courtroom Friday, some relatives wore T-shirts and buttons printed with the names and faces of the victims or with a heart-shaped logo designed to unite the seaside community in the wake of the tragedy.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; line-height: 1.45em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 10px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">About a year after the killings, the salon reopened, and six of the original employees returned to work.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; line-height: 1.45em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 10px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">But even as the community convalesces and the court proceedings amble on, victims' relatives struggle with the loss. Craig Burke, Fournier's brother, points to a giant heart tattooed on his chest along weeks after the killings to memorialize his sister.</span></div>
</div>

California salon killings

Man pleads guilty in California salon killings SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) - A disgruntled father embroiled in a custody dispute with his ex-w...

California salon killings

<h2 class="article-title" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: adelle-sans, sans-serif; font-size: 35px; line-height: 38px; margin: 0px 0px 4px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 3px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: red;">Man pleads guilty in California salon killings</span></h2>
<div>
<img alt="Accused Calif. salon killer pleads guilty" src="http://i.huffpost.com/gen/1773949/thumbs/a-SCOTT-DEKRAAI-640x420.jpg" /></div>
<h3>
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.45em;"><span style="color: purple; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) - A disgruntled father embroiled in a custody dispute with his ex-wife pleaded guilty Friday to murdering her and seven others in a shooting rampage at a California hair salon.</span></span></h3>
<div class="article-content" data-enablerefresh="true" data-refreshcnt="3" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; line-height: 1.45em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 10px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Scott Dekraai, a 44-year-old former tugboat operator, looked straight at the judge as he entered his pleas to eight counts of murder and one count of attempted murder with special circumstances and enhancements in a courtroom packed with the tearful relatives of his victims.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; line-height: 1.45em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 10px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">"After today you will not be an alleged killer anymore, you are going to be a convicted murderer," Judge Thomas M. Goethals told Dekraai.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; line-height: 1.45em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 10px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for Dekraai, who had been locked in a bitter custody dispute with ex-wife Michelle Fournier over their 8-year-old son when he entered Salon Meritage in Seal Beach in October 2011 wearing a bulletproof vest and armed with three weapons.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; line-height: 1.45em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 10px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Dekraai shot and killed Fournier before turning his guns on the salon owner, stylists and customers. On his way out, he killed a man who was sitting in his car in the parking lot. Police arrested Dekraai within minutes of the rampage, which left eight dead and one wounded.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; line-height: 1.45em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 10px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">"'I know what I did,'" he told an arresting officer, according to a police affidavit.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; line-height: 1.45em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 10px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Assistant Public Defender Scott Sanders said Dekraai wanted to enter the plea to spare the victims a lengthy trial while he continues to fight a potential death sentence.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; line-height: 1.45em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 10px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">On Friday, relatives dabbed their eyes and cried quietly in the courtroom as the judge read the names of the victims.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; line-height: 1.45em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 10px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">"It's just a real slap of reality," Paul Wilson, whose wife was killed in the attack, said after the hearing.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; line-height: 1.45em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 10px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Wilson also said he didn't buy the reason Dekraai gave for entering the plea and suspected it had more to do with strategy than remorse.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; line-height: 1.45em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 10px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">"This is not a compassionate man, or I wouldn't be standing here today," Wilson told reporters.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; line-height: 1.45em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 10px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">After the hearing, Sanders said that Dekraai had been talking about changing his plea for some time, and he was relieved to have done so.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; line-height: 1.45em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 10px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">"He's not doing this for a tactical reason," Sanders said. "He believes this is absolutely the right thing to do."</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; line-height: 1.45em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 10px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In his two decades working at the Orange County public defender's office, Sanders said he has never had a capital murder defendant plead guilty.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; line-height: 1.45em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 10px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The case has long focused on whether Dekraai should be sentenced to life in prison or death, with victims' relatives divided over his fate.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; line-height: 1.45em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 10px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas said his office would continue to seek death for Dekraai to honor the wishes of some of the victims' relatives and his responsibility to county residents.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; line-height: 1.45em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 10px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">"This is a horrendous case. This is a multiple-murder case against innocent and defenseless victims, and the only thing that might even approach justice in a case like this is for us to seek the death penalty," he said.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; line-height: 1.45em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 10px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Some victims' relatives said they hope to witness Dekraai's execution someday. Others said they'd rather see him suffer out his life in prison than be put quietly to sleep - a stark contrast to the violent death their loved ones faced.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; line-height: 1.45em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 10px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">"I'd like him to find a more eye-for-an-eye sort of demise in general population," said Bethany Webb, whose sister was killed and whose mother was the sole survivor of the attack. "He's a coward. Those guys are going to eat him up."</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; line-height: 1.45em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 10px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Dekraai, who was injured in a boating accident in 2007, is due back in court on Monday for a hearing underway on allegations by Sanders that authorities misused jailhouse informants in violation of Dekraai's constitutional rights, and tried to conceal related evidence.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; line-height: 1.45em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 10px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Sanders has asked Goethals to recuse the district attorney's office and remove the death penalty as an option in the case over the allegations, which prosecutors have denied.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; line-height: 1.45em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 10px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Goethals said he expects to rule on the allegations in about four to six weeks. If he doesn't strike the death penalty, a penalty phase to determine whether Dekraai ought to face a life in prison or a death sentence would follow.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; line-height: 1.45em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 10px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In the courtroom Friday, some relatives wore T-shirts and buttons printed with the names and faces of the victims or with a heart-shaped logo designed to unite the seaside community in the wake of the tragedy.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; line-height: 1.45em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 10px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">About a year after the killings, the salon reopened, and six of the original employees returned to work.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; line-height: 1.45em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 10px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">But even as the community convalesces and the court proceedings amble on, victims' relatives struggle with the loss. Craig Burke, Fournier's brother, points to a giant heart tattooed on his chest along weeks after the killings to memorialize his sister.</span></div>
</div>
<div class="article-byline" style="background-color: white; border: 0px rgb(221, 221, 221); color: grey; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 3px 1px 5px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 641px;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.45em;">"People say you end this court thing, it is going to change everything. It's not going to change nothing," Burke said. "You're going to live with this your whole li</span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.45em;">fe."</span></span></div>

California salon killings

Man pleads guilty in California salon killings SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) - A disgruntled father embroiled in a custody dispute with his ex...

California salon killings

<h2 class="article-title" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: adelle-sans, sans-serif; font-size: 35px; line-height: 38px; margin: 0px 0px 4px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 3px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: red;">Man pleads guilty in California salon killings</span></h2>
<div>
<img alt="Accused Calif. salon killer pleads guilty" src="http://i.huffpost.com/gen/1773949/thumbs/a-SCOTT-DEKRAAI-640x420.jpg" /></div>
<h3>
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.45em;"><span style="color: purple; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) - A disgruntled father embroiled in a custody dispute with his ex-wife pleaded guilty Friday to murdering her and seven others in a shooting rampage at a California hair salon.</span></span></h3>
<div class="article-content" data-enablerefresh="true" data-refreshcnt="3" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; line-height: 1.45em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 10px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Scott Dekraai, a 44-year-old former tugboat operator, looked straight at the judge as he entered his pleas to eight counts of murder and one count of attempted murder with special circumstances and enhancements in a courtroom packed with the tearful relatives of his victims.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; line-height: 1.45em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 10px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">"After today you will not be an alleged killer anymore, you are going to be a convicted murderer," Judge Thomas M. Goethals told Dekraai.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; line-height: 1.45em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 10px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for Dekraai, who had been locked in a bitter custody dispute with ex-wife Michelle Fournier over their 8-year-old son when he entered Salon Meritage in Seal Beach in October 2011 wearing a bulletproof vest and armed with three weapons.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; line-height: 1.45em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 10px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Dekraai shot and killed Fournier before turning his guns on the salon owner, stylists and customers. On his way out, he killed a man who was sitting in his car in the parking lot. Police arrested Dekraai within minutes of the rampage, which left eight dead and one wounded.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; line-height: 1.45em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 10px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">"'I know what I did,'" he told an arresting officer, according to a police affidavit.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; line-height: 1.45em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 10px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Assistant Public Defender Scott Sanders said Dekraai wanted to enter the plea to spare the victims a lengthy trial while he continues to fight a potential death sentence.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; line-height: 1.45em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 10px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">On Friday, relatives dabbed their eyes and cried quietly in the courtroom as the judge read the names of the victims.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; line-height: 1.45em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 10px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">"It's just a real slap of reality," Paul Wilson, whose wife was killed in the attack, said after the hearing.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; line-height: 1.45em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 10px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Wilson also said he didn't buy the reason Dekraai gave for entering the plea and suspected it had more to do with strategy than remorse.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; line-height: 1.45em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 10px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">"This is not a compassionate man, or I wouldn't be standing here today," Wilson told reporters.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; line-height: 1.45em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 10px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">After the hearing, Sanders said that Dekraai had been talking about changing his plea for some time, and he was relieved to have done so.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; line-height: 1.45em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 10px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">"He's not doing this for a tactical reason," Sanders said. "He believes this is absolutely the right thing to do."</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; line-height: 1.45em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 10px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In his two decades working at the Orange County public defender's office, Sanders said he has never had a capital murder defendant plead guilty.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; line-height: 1.45em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 10px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The case has long focused on whether Dekraai should be sentenced to life in prison or death, with victims' relatives divided over his fate.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; line-height: 1.45em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 10px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas said his office would continue to seek death for Dekraai to honor the wishes of some of the victims' relatives and his responsibility to county residents.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; line-height: 1.45em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 10px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">"This is a horrendous case. This is a multiple-murder case against innocent and defenseless victims, and the only thing that might even approach justice in a case like this is for us to seek the death penalty," he said.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; line-height: 1.45em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 10px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Some victims' relatives said they hope to witness Dekraai's execution someday. Others said they'd rather see him suffer out his life in prison than be put quietly to sleep - a stark contrast to the violent death their loved ones faced.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; line-height: 1.45em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 10px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">"I'd like him to find a more eye-for-an-eye sort of demise in general population," said Bethany Webb, whose sister was killed and whose mother was the sole survivor of the attack. "He's a coward. Those guys are going to eat him up."</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; line-height: 1.45em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 10px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Dekraai, who was injured in a boating accident in 2007, is due back in court on Monday for a hearing underway on allegations by Sanders that authorities misused jailhouse informants in violation of Dekraai's constitutional rights, and tried to conceal related evidence.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; line-height: 1.45em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 10px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Sanders has asked Goethals to recuse the district attorney's office and remove the death penalty as an option in the case over the allegations, which prosecutors have denied.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; line-height: 1.45em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 10px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Goethals said he expects to rule on the allegations in about four to six weeks. If he doesn't strike the death penalty, a penalty phase to determine whether Dekraai ought to face a life in prison or a death sentence would follow.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; line-height: 1.45em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 10px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In the courtroom Friday, some relatives wore T-shirts and buttons printed with the names and faces of the victims or with a heart-shaped logo designed to unite the seaside community in the wake of the tragedy.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; line-height: 1.45em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 10px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">About a year after the killings, the salon reopened, and six of the original employees returned to work.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; line-height: 1.45em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 10px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">But even as the community convalesces and the court proceedings amble on, victims' relatives struggle with the loss. Craig Burke, Fournier's brother, points to a giant heart tattooed on his chest along weeks after the killings to memorialize his sister.</span></div>
</div>
<div class="article-byline" style="background-color: white; border: 0px rgb(221, 221, 221); color: grey; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 3px 1px 5px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 641px;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.45em;">"People say you end this court thing, it is going to change everything. It's not going to change nothing," Burke said. "You're going to live with this your whole li</span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.45em;">fe."</span></span></div>

California salon killings

Man pleads guilty in California salon killings SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) - A disgruntled father embroiled in a custody dispute with his ex...

California salon killings

<h2 class="article-title" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: adelle-sans, sans-serif; font-size: 35px; line-height: 38px; margin: 0px 0px 4px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 3px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: red;">Man pleads guilty in California salon killings</span></h2>
<div>
<img alt="Accused Calif. salon killer pleads guilty" src="http://i.huffpost.com/gen/1773949/thumbs/a-SCOTT-DEKRAAI-640x420.jpg" /></div>
<h3>
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.45em;"><span style="color: purple; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) - A disgruntled father embroiled in a custody dispute with his ex-wife pleaded guilty Friday to murdering her and seven others in a shooting rampage at a California hair salon.</span></span></h3>
<div class="article-content" data-enablerefresh="true" data-refreshcnt="3" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; line-height: 1.45em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 10px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Scott Dekraai, a 44-year-old former tugboat operator, looked straight at the judge as he entered his pleas to eight counts of murder and one count of attempted murder with special circumstances and enhancements in a courtroom packed with the tearful relatives of his victims.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; line-height: 1.45em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 10px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">"After today you will not be an alleged killer anymore, you are going to be a convicted murderer," Judge Thomas M. Goethals told Dekraai.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; line-height: 1.45em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 10px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for Dekraai, who had been locked in a bitter custody dispute with ex-wife Michelle Fournier over their 8-year-old son when he entered Salon Meritage in Seal Beach in October 2011 wearing a bulletproof vest and armed with three weapons.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; line-height: 1.45em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 10px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Dekraai shot and killed Fournier before turning his guns on the salon owner, stylists and customers. On his way out, he killed a man who was sitting in his car in the parking lot. Police arrested Dekraai within minutes of the rampage, which left eight dead and one wounded.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; line-height: 1.45em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 10px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">"'I know what I did,'" he told an arresting officer, according to a police affidavit.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; line-height: 1.45em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 10px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Assistant Public Defender Scott Sanders said Dekraai wanted to enter the plea to spare the victims a lengthy trial while he continues to fight a potential death sentence.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; line-height: 1.45em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 10px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">On Friday, relatives dabbed their eyes and cried quietly in the courtroom as the judge read the names of the victims.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; line-height: 1.45em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 10px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">"It's just a real slap of reality," Paul Wilson, whose wife was killed in the attack, said after the hearing.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; line-height: 1.45em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 10px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Wilson also said he didn't buy the reason Dekraai gave for entering the plea and suspected it had more to do with strategy than remorse.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; line-height: 1.45em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 10px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">"This is not a compassionate man, or I wouldn't be standing here today," Wilson told reporters.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; line-height: 1.45em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 10px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">After the hearing, Sanders said that Dekraai had been talking about changing his plea for some time, and he was relieved to have done so.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; line-height: 1.45em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 10px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">"He's not doing this for a tactical reason," Sanders said. "He believes this is absolutely the right thing to do."</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; line-height: 1.45em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 10px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In his two decades working at the Orange County public defender's office, Sanders said he has never had a capital murder defendant plead guilty.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; line-height: 1.45em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 10px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The case has long focused on whether Dekraai should be sentenced to life in prison or death, with victims' relatives divided over his fate.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; line-height: 1.45em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 10px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas said his office would continue to seek death for Dekraai to honor the wishes of some of the victims' relatives and his responsibility to county residents.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; line-height: 1.45em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 10px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">"This is a horrendous case. This is a multiple-murder case against innocent and defenseless victims, and the only thing that might even approach justice in a case like this is for us to seek the death penalty," he said.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; line-height: 1.45em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 10px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Some victims' relatives said they hope to witness Dekraai's execution someday. Others said they'd rather see him suffer out his life in prison than be put quietly to sleep - a stark contrast to the violent death their loved ones faced.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; line-height: 1.45em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 10px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">"I'd like him to find a more eye-for-an-eye sort of demise in general population," said Bethany Webb, whose sister was killed and whose mother was the sole survivor of the attack. "He's a coward. Those guys are going to eat him up."</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; line-height: 1.45em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 10px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Dekraai, who was injured in a boating accident in 2007, is due back in court on Monday for a hearing underway on allegations by Sanders that authorities misused jailhouse informants in violation of Dekraai's constitutional rights, and tried to conceal related evidence.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; line-height: 1.45em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 10px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Sanders has asked Goethals to recuse the district attorney's office and remove the death penalty as an option in the case over the allegations, which prosecutors have denied.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; line-height: 1.45em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 10px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Goethals said he expects to rule on the allegations in about four to six weeks. If he doesn't strike the death penalty, a penalty phase to determine whether Dekraai ought to face a life in prison or a death sentence would follow.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; line-height: 1.45em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 10px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In the courtroom Friday, some relatives wore T-shirts and buttons printed with the names and faces of the victims or with a heart-shaped logo designed to unite the seaside community in the wake of the tragedy.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; line-height: 1.45em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 10px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">About a year after the killings, the salon reopened, and six of the original employees returned to work.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; line-height: 1.45em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 10px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">But even as the community convalesces and the court proceedings amble on, victims' relatives struggle with the loss. Craig Burke, Fournier's brother, points to a giant heart tattooed on his chest along weeks after the killings to memorialize his sister.</span></div>
</div>
<div class="article-byline" style="background-color: white; border: 0px rgb(221, 221, 221); color: grey; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 3px 1px 5px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 641px;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.45em;">"People say you end this court thing, it is going to change everything. It's not going to change nothing," Burke said. "You're going to live with this your whole li</span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.45em;">fe."</span></span></div>

California salon killings

Man pleads guilty in California salon killings SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) - A disgruntled father embroiled in a custody dispute with his ex...

California salon killings

<h2 class="article-title" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: adelle-sans, sans-serif; font-size: 35px; line-height: 38px; margin: 0px 0px 4px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 3px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: red;">Man pleads guilty in California salon killings</span></h2>
<div>
<img alt="Accused Calif. salon killer pleads guilty" src="http://i.huffpost.com/gen/1773949/thumbs/a-SCOTT-DEKRAAI-640x420.jpg" /></div>
<h3>
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.45em;"><span style="color: purple; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) - A disgruntled father embroiled in a custody dispute with his ex-wife pleaded guilty Friday to murdering her and seven others in a shooting rampage at a California hair salon.</span></span></h3>
<div class="article-content" data-enablerefresh="true" data-refreshcnt="3" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; line-height: 1.45em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 10px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Scott Dekraai, a 44-year-old former tugboat operator, looked straight at the judge as he entered his pleas to eight counts of murder and one count of attempted murder with special circumstances and enhancements in a courtroom packed with the tearful relatives of his victims.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; line-height: 1.45em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 10px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">"After today you will not be an alleged killer anymore, you are going to be a convicted murderer," Judge Thomas M. Goethals told Dekraai.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; line-height: 1.45em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 10px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for Dekraai, who had been locked in a bitter custody dispute with ex-wife Michelle Fournier over their 8-year-old son when he entered Salon Meritage in Seal Beach in October 2011 wearing a bulletproof vest and armed with three weapons.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; line-height: 1.45em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 10px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Dekraai shot and killed Fournier before turning his guns on the salon owner, stylists and customers. On his way out, he killed a man who was sitting in his car in the parking lot. Police arrested Dekraai within minutes of the rampage, which left eight dead and one wounded.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; line-height: 1.45em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 10px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">"'I know what I did,'" he told an arresting officer, according to a police affidavit.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; line-height: 1.45em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 10px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Assistant Public Defender Scott Sanders said Dekraai wanted to enter the plea to spare the victims a lengthy trial while he continues to fight a potential death sentence.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; line-height: 1.45em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 10px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">On Friday, relatives dabbed their eyes and cried quietly in the courtroom as the judge read the names of the victims.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; line-height: 1.45em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 10px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">"It's just a real slap of reality," Paul Wilson, whose wife was killed in the attack, said after the hearing.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; line-height: 1.45em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 10px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Wilson also said he didn't buy the reason Dekraai gave for entering the plea and suspected it had more to do with strategy than remorse.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; line-height: 1.45em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 10px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">"This is not a compassionate man, or I wouldn't be standing here today," Wilson told reporters.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; line-height: 1.45em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 10px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">After the hearing, Sanders said that Dekraai had been talking about changing his plea for some time, and he was relieved to have done so.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; line-height: 1.45em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 10px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">"He's not doing this for a tactical reason," Sanders said. "He believes this is absolutely the right thing to do."</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; line-height: 1.45em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 10px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In his two decades working at the Orange County public defender's office, Sanders said he has never had a capital murder defendant plead guilty.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; line-height: 1.45em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 10px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The case has long focused on whether Dekraai should be sentenced to life in prison or death, with victims' relatives divided over his fate.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; line-height: 1.45em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 10px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas said his office would continue to seek death for Dekraai to honor the wishes of some of the victims' relatives and his responsibility to county residents.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; line-height: 1.45em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 10px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">"This is a horrendous case. This is a multiple-murder case against innocent and defenseless victims, and the only thing that might even approach justice in a case like this is for us to seek the death penalty," he said.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; line-height: 1.45em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 10px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Some victims' relatives said they hope to witness Dekraai's execution someday. Others said they'd rather see him suffer out his life in prison than be put quietly to sleep - a stark contrast to the violent death their loved ones faced.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; line-height: 1.45em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 10px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">"I'd like him to find a more eye-for-an-eye sort of demise in general population," said Bethany Webb, whose sister was killed and whose mother was the sole survivor of the attack. "He's a coward. Those guys are going to eat him up."</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; line-height: 1.45em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 10px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Dekraai, who was injured in a boating accident in 2007, is due back in court on Monday for a hearing underway on allegations by Sanders that authorities misused jailhouse informants in violation of Dekraai's constitutional rights, and tried to conceal related evidence.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; line-height: 1.45em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 10px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Sanders has asked Goethals to recuse the district attorney's office and remove the death penalty as an option in the case over the allegations, which prosecutors have denied.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; line-height: 1.45em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 10px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Goethals said he expects to rule on the allegations in about four to six weeks. If he doesn't strike the death penalty, a penalty phase to determine whether Dekraai ought to face a life in prison or a death sentence would follow.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; line-height: 1.45em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 10px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In the courtroom Friday, some relatives wore T-shirts and buttons printed with the names and faces of the victims or with a heart-shaped logo designed to unite the seaside community in the wake of the tragedy.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; line-height: 1.45em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 10px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">About a year after the killings, the salon reopened, and six of the original employees returned to work.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; line-height: 1.45em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 10px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">But even as the community convalesces and the court proceedings amble on, victims' relatives struggle with the loss. Craig Burke, Fournier's brother, points to a giant heart tattooed on his chest along weeks after the killings to memorialize his sister.</span></div>
</div>
<div class="article-byline" style="background-color: white; border: 0px rgb(221, 221, 221); color: grey; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 3px 1px 5px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 641px;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.45em;">"People say you end this court thing, it is going to change everything. It's not going to change nothing," Burke said. "You're going to live with this your whole li</span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.45em;">fe."</span></span></div>

California salon killings

Man pleads guilty in California salon killings SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) - A disgruntled father embroiled in a custody dispute with his ex...

California salon killings

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<span style="color: red;">Man pleads guilty in California salon killings</span></h2>
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<img alt="Accused Calif. salon killer pleads guilty" src="http://i.huffpost.com/gen/1773949/thumbs/a-SCOTT-DEKRAAI-640x420.jpg" /></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.45em;"><span style="color: purple; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) - A disgruntled father embroiled in a custody dispute with his ex-wife pleaded guilty Friday to murdering her and seven others in a shooting rampage at a California hair salon.</span></span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Scott Dekraai, a 44-year-old former tugboat operator, looked straight at the judge as he entered his pleas to eight counts of murder and one count of attempted murder with special circumstances and enhancements in a courtroom packed with the tearful relatives of his victims.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">"After today you will not be an alleged killer anymore, you are going to be a convicted murderer," Judge Thomas M. Goethals told Dekraai.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for Dekraai, who had been locked in a bitter custody dispute with ex-wife Michelle Fournier over their 8-year-old son when he entered Salon Meritage in Seal Beach in October 2011 wearing a bulletproof vest and armed with three weapons.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Dekraai shot and killed Fournier before turning his guns on the salon owner, stylists and customers. On his way out, he killed a man who was sitting in his car in the parking lot. Police arrested Dekraai within minutes of the rampage, which left eight dead and one wounded.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">"'I know what I did,'" he told an arresting officer, according to a police affidavit.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Assistant Public Defender Scott Sanders said Dekraai wanted to enter the plea to spare the victims a lengthy trial while he continues to fight a potential death sentence.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">On Friday, relatives dabbed their eyes and cried quietly in the courtroom as the judge read the names of the victims.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">"It's just a real slap of reality," Paul Wilson, whose wife was killed in the attack, said after the hearing.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Wilson also said he didn't buy the reason Dekraai gave for entering the plea and suspected it had more to do with strategy than remorse.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">"This is not a compassionate man, or I wouldn't be standing here today," Wilson told reporters.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">After the hearing, Sanders said that Dekraai had been talking about changing his plea for some time, and he was relieved to have done so.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">"He's not doing this for a tactical reason," Sanders said. "He believes this is absolutely the right thing to do."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In his two decades working at the Orange County public defender's office, Sanders said he has never had a capital murder defendant plead guilty.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The case has long focused on whether Dekraai should be sentenced to life in prison or death, with victims' relatives divided over his fate.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas said his office would continue to seek death for Dekraai to honor the wishes of some of the victims' relatives and his responsibility to county residents.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">"This is a horrendous case. This is a multiple-murder case against innocent and defenseless victims, and the only thing that might even approach justice in a case like this is for us to seek the death penalty," he said.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Some victims' relatives said they hope to witness Dekraai's execution someday. Others said they'd rather see him suffer out his life in prison than be put quietly to sleep - a stark contrast to the violent death their loved ones faced.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">"I'd like him to find a more eye-for-an-eye sort of demise in general population," said Bethany Webb, whose sister was killed and whose mother was the sole survivor of the attack. "He's a coward. Those guys are going to eat him up."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Dekraai, who was injured in a boating accident in 2007, is due back in court on Monday for a hearing underway on allegations by Sanders that authorities misused jailhouse informants in violation of Dekraai's constitutional rights, and tried to conceal related evidence.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Sanders has asked Goethals to recuse the district attorney's office and remove the death penalty as an option in the case over the allegations, which prosecutors have denied.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; line-height: 1.45em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 10px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Goethals said he expects to rule on the allegations in about four to six weeks. If he doesn't strike the death penalty, a penalty phase to determine whether Dekraai ought to face a life in prison or a death sentence would follow.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; line-height: 1.45em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 10px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In the courtroom Friday, some relatives wore T-shirts and buttons printed with the names and faces of the victims or with a heart-shaped logo designed to unite the seaside community in the wake of the tragedy.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; line-height: 1.45em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 10px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">About a year after the killings, the salon reopened, and six of the original employees returned to work.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; line-height: 1.45em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 10px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">But even as the community convalesces and the court proceedings amble on, victims' relatives struggle with the loss. Craig Burke, Fournier's brother, points to a giant heart tattooed on his chest along weeks after the killings to memorialize his sister.</span></div>
</div>
<div class="article-byline" style="background-color: white; border: 0px rgb(221, 221, 221); color: grey; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 3px 1px 5px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 641px;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.45em;">"People say you end this court thing, it is going to change everything. It's not going to change nothing," Burke said. "You're going to live with this your whole li</span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.45em;">fe."</span></span></div>

California salon killings

Man pleads guilty in California salon killings SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) - A disgruntled father embroiled in a custody dispute with his ex...

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