A 31-year-old man who believed Kylie Jenner told him to stab two homeless people to death in Anaheim and strangle his cellmate while awaiting trial was sentenced Thursday to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Marvin Magallanes was convicted last month of two counts of first-degree murder for the killings of 52-year-old Onosai Tavita and 49-year-old Sabah Alsaad and one count of second-degree murder for the slaying of 27-year-old Danny Pham.
Magallanes showed no obvious reaction as Orange County Superior Court Judge Kimberly Menninger sentenced him to two consecutive terms of life without the possibility of parole, for the killing of the homeless men, as well as an additional 15-years-to-life, for the killing of Pham.
Tina Wu, Pham’s older sister, said her brother’s violent death has left their family with a life of “fear, stress and anxiety.”
“I have been scarred with a deep wound that will last the rest of my life,” Wu said. “Every day is a struggle and constant reminder of his absence… As I sat in court and listened to the evidence shown against Marvin Magallanes, I cannot believe how he did not show any sign of remorse.”
Magallanes did not speak during the hearing, only shaking his head when asked by the judge if he had any questions or anything he wanted to say.
According to his attorney, Associate Defender Michael Hill, Magallanes, who has schizophrenia, was under the delusion that he was in a relationship with Kylie Jenner and believed that she told him someone was trying to “steal his life” and the only way to prevent it was to end someone else’s.
Prior to sentencing, Hill argued that sending someone in Magallanes’ condition to prison for the rest of his life represented cruel and unusual punishment.
Orange County Superior Court Judge Kimberly Menninger noted that Magallanes opted not to pursue a “not guilty by reason of insanity” defense.
The judge described the case as involving “great brutality,” and said that Alsaad and Tavita — who were killed while sleeping — and Pham — who was killed while stuck in a jail cell — were particularly vulnerable.
During his trial, Deputy District Attorney Christopher Alex said Magallanes didn’t have any particular animosity toward the homeless community, instead choosing his two homeless victims because they were easy to find.
Prior to the killings, Magallanes twice drove up to Jenner’s home in Calabasas and told guards that he was there to see the model and reality television star. At one point he tried to drive through a security gate at the residence.
In May 2017, Magallanes walked into the Anaheim Police Department and confessed to killing Alsaad. Detectives had already tied the killing through DNA to the earlier slaying of Tavita.
Several weeks after his arrest, Magallanes strangled Pham, his cellmate who was about to be released from jail on a joyriding conviction.
Jailhouse surveillance footage showed him coming up from behind Pham, wrapping his arms around Pham’s throat and dragging him backwards. Pham’s body was discovered hours later, covered by a sheet on one of the cell’s beds.
During his trial, the prosecution argued that Magallanes knew what he did was wrong when he killed the three men, while the defense countered that they were the result of Magallanes’ mental illness and not premeditated murders.
Since being charged, Magallanes has spent four years being moved multiple times between Patton State Hospital and Orange County jails as judges weighed whether he was fit to stand trial.
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