A man from Sun Valley describes as the brain of Triple massacres of a man and a woman from Fullerton whom he met in the “fur community” With a friend of the couple was sentenced on Friday April 11 to three consecutive prison terms without the possibility of parole.
Frank Sato Felix, 33, was sentenced in November 2024 for the murders of special circumstances of Jennifer Yost, Christopher Yost and Arthur “Billy” Boucher.
The three victims were slaughtered with a shotgun while sleeping in the early morning of September 24, 2016, at the Fullerton Home de Yosts.
The prosecutors at the trial declared before the killings, Felix had become “obsessed” by the teenage girl of the couple, which they told Felix to stay away.
Felix, who was chained and wore a blue smock emitted by the prison, green pants and orange shoes, described himself as a “beast” during Friday's hearing when he stifled tears by reading a brief apologetic statement before being condemned by the judge of the Superior Court of Orange County Kimberly Menninger.
“For families and victims, I would exchange places in a minute with those who were killed,” he said.
Amy Rutherford, Christopher Yost's sister, asked in a declaration of impact on the victim that Felix receives the maximum penalty. “No sentence can erase the horrors of this night (when the killers occurred),” she said, adding that her continuous grief has left him a fragile and hollow sensation.
The murders also wreaked havoc on the two young children of the Yosts, who discovered their dead parents, said Rutherford. “Each step they reach will be tinged with loss,” she added.
David Paulson, Felix's lawyer, described murders as “brutal” and “insane”.
He told the judge: “There are no words that can be proposed to relieve the pain of the families of the victims. He (Felix) will age behind bars and will never walk freely. His expressions of remorse goes beyond what he communicated to me. ”
Felix's parents attended the hearing but did not address the court. “They are not there to defend what cannot be defended,” said Paulson. “They are here because he is their child.”
Felix, who was 25 years old at the time of the killers, admitted to having provided the shooter – Joshua Acosta, 21 years old – with a shotgun and ammunition and waiting in front of the Fullerton's house with the 17 -year -old Yost daughter while Acosta killed the couple and butcher, who spent the night at the residence.
Boucher was killed while he was sleeping on a sofa, Jennifer Yost while she was sleeping in her bed and Christopher Yost after woke up and tried to escape the house.
Felix, Yosts and their teenage daughter were all part of the fur community, composed of people who Role play and sometimes disguise themselves as animal characters And take their characters as they come together online and during conventions. ACOSTA – At the time, an army mechanic – was a “brly”, a man who is a fan of the series “My Little Pony”.
The senior assistant assistant district prosecutor said that Felix orchestrated murders and was Obsessed by the 17 -year -old girl then whose Yosts had ordered him to stay away. At one point, shortly before the killings, Felix wrote to the teenager: “You are the only one and the thing that makes me happy.”
The daughter – who testified during the Acosta trial but did not take a stand in the Felix trial – said that his stepfather, Christopher Yost, sexually abused her mother, her mother, Jennifer Yost, the mistreatment verbally and physically. After their arrests, Felix and Acosta told the police that they were trying to “save” her parents' daughter.
Menninger said that if it was not for the daughter's lie to have been abused by her parents, the killings would not have occurred.
“He (Felix) thought he was doing something brave, which was a lie,” she said.
It is not known if the allegations of abuse is true, the authorities said. Nor is it difficult if the girl knew the plot to kill her parents.
She allegedly alleged that Felix had made him sing to have sex with him and admitted having let Acosta enter the house just before the killings.
Felix only intended to help the 17-year-old woman to “escape” her mother and stepfather, Paulson, her lawyer. It was Acosta who wanted the pistol and the protection ammunition in case Jennifer Yost or Christopher Yost tried to stop it, he added.
A few days before the murders, Felix wrote in a Facebook message To a friend: “I could help someone with a murder”, then said that he was just talking about an animal when the friend told him not to do it
The two young children of the Yosts were sleeping and did not hurt during the shots, but woke up to find their dead parents. The police quickly realized that the eldest girl was missing and, thanks to telephone files, identified Acosta as a suspect.
The authorities of Fort Irwin, where Acosta was parked, detained and excavated Acosta and found three shells of hunting rifle in one of his pockets. A shell, noted a prosecutor during his trial, for each victim.
In an interview with the police shortly after his arrest, Felix admitted to having bought ammunition, ear protection and a bowl-lock to cut a safety lock of the fighter rifle of his father, which he gave to Acosta.
Felix described that he was afraid of Acosta and said he had heard the last shot. He admitted that the girl had said to him earlier in the night that Boucher stayed at home, explaining to the police: “So I already knew that there would be a third body.”
Acosta told the police that the Yost family was a “purity injury” that he had “cauterized” and described clogs like “collateral damage. He was sentenced in 2018 In life imprisonment without possibility of parole.
