Local News in Brief : Sentence in Arson Deaths
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A Manhattan Beach teen-ager was sentenced Thursday to 19 years to life in prison for setting a May fire that killed three occupants of a Redondo Beach apartment that was a popular “party house” for local youths.
Torrance Superior Court Judge Gary Hastings sentenced Ryan Rickert, 19, for the May 23 arson fire that killed roommates David Weissman, 22; Lana McLeod, 21, and James Wooden, 25.
The three were sleeping in the apartment they shared with two others when Rickert and a friend, Brady Kruse, came to the house early on the morning of May 23. Prosecutors said the pair began setting fires in the living room of the apartment after a fourth roommate in the apartment refused to get up to party with them.
Kruse was never charged, but a jury convicted Rickert in October of arson and three counts of second-degree murder.
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