Germarcus David appearing in court (KABC screenshot) and the scene outside of the home where he killed his 4 kids and their grandmother (KCBS screenshot)
A 32-year-old man in California will spend the rest of his life behind bars for killing his four young children and their maternal grandmother, fatally shooting all five victims in their family home nearly three years ago and leaving the bodies to be found by his wife.
A jury in Los Angeles County on Tuesday found Germarcus L. David guilty on five counts of first-degree murder in the 2021 slayings of 51-year-old Erika England, 11-year-old Namyiah David, 7-year-old Germarcus David Jr., 2-year-old Kayden David, and 1-year-old Noah David, authorities announced.
Jurors also convicted Germarcus David on three counts of assault on a child resulting in death and found true the special circumstance that he committed multiple murders and the aggravating factor that he personally used a firearm in each of the killings.
“I am deeply thankful to the dedicated jury and skilled trial lawyers who tirelessly sought justice in the Germarcus David case,” L.A. County District Attorney George Gascón said in a statement. “The emotional challenge of presenting evidence of such senseless loss is immense. Their courage in pursuing accountability and closure for the victims and their family is truly commendable.”
As previously reported by Law&Crime, deputies with the L.A. Sheriff’s Office at about 10:27 p.m. on Nov. 28, 2021, responded to a rescue call at a residence in the 3500 block of Garnet Lane in Lancaster, a city in the western Mojave Desert some 75 miles north of downtown Los Angeles, regarding multiple shooting victims. Paramedics had already been dispatched to the scene.
Upon arriving on the address, first responders found a Black female adult in her 50s — later identified as England — suffering from an apparent gunshot wound “to the upper torso.” Deputies subsequently located a female juvenile victim and three male juvenile victims all under the age of 12 suffering from gunshot wounds to the upper torso. The sheriff’s office said that all five of the victims were pronounced dead on the scene by medical personnel.
In a truly heinous twist, authorities said that Germarcus David — a licensed security guard — left the bodies of his children and mother-in-law for his wife to find.
Reginald Beltran, a neighbor who lives three houses away, told Los Angeles CW affiliate KTLA that he could hear the woman’s cries of despair after she entered the grisly scene left behind by her husband.
“We can hear her screaming over the phone,” Beltran told the station. “She was screaming ‘My babies are dead. My babies are dead.’”
Reginald Beltran’s wife, Grace Beltran, told KTLA that she saw the mother running “back and forth in their front yard” while screaming, “My babies are gone! They’re all dead!”
Authorities said that the mother did not have a restraining order against Germarcus David and there was no reported history of domestic violence prior to the shootings.
After committing the murders, Germarcus David went to the sheriff’s station and turned himself in.
According to a report from the Los Angeles Daily News, prosecutors at trial argued that Germarcus David was angry that the children’s mother was seeking a divorce after learning that he had an affair with another woman with whom he fathered a child. On the day of the shootings, he reportedly left work early and went to the family’s home. Within about seven minutes of entering the home, he allegedly fired 20 rounds at the kids and their grandmother.
“He finished off those that she loved,” Deputy District Attorney Vanessa Zuniga told jurors, per the Daily News. She added that he “did it to get back” at his wife for the divorce.
