RIVERSIDE - Closing arguments get underway next week in the trial of three Marines accused of killing a sergeant and his wife during a home- invasion robbery and sexual assault at the couple's French Valley home. Tyrone Miller and Kevin Darnell Cox, both 25, along with 23-year-old Emrys Justin John could face the death penalty if convicted in the Oct. 15, 2008, slayings of 24-year-old Janek Pietrzak and his 26-year-old wife, Quiana Faye Jenkins-Pietrzak. The three defendants and 25-year-old Kesaun Kedron Sykes -- who will be tried separately in August -- are each charged with first-degree murder, with special circumstance allegations of killing during the course of a robbery and taking multiple lives in the same crime. The trial began April 8. The first closing statement will be Tuesday, before the jury hearing Cox's case. Closing statements before the jury hearing John's and Miller's case will be Wednesday. If jurors find the special circumstance allegations to be rue, a penalty trial would follow, in which the same panels would decide whether to recommend capital punishment or life in prison without the possibility of parole for the trio. Riverside County Deputy District Attorney Daniel DeLimon alleges that the defendants planned and executed the killings together and shared equal responsibility. Cox allegedly admitted to sheriff's investigators that he and his co- defendants tried but failed to find an unlocked back entrance to the victims' two-story French Valley residence at 31319 Bermuda Ave., so opted to ring the front door bell. According to Cox's story, he rang the bell twice shortly after 1 a.m., and Pietrzak came downstairs in a T-shirt and boxer shorts. According to DeLimon, Pietrzak was armed with a knife when he deactivated his house alarm and opened the door. The defendants, armed with shotguns, jabbed the barrels into the young Marine sergeant, moving him back from the door and pummeling him, DeLimon alleged. For close to 90 minutes, the men ransacked the home, packing stolen items into suitcases and loading them into John's Jeep Cherokee, according to the prosecution. DeLimon showed the jury photos of the victims, bound and gagged on the living room floor. Quiana's eyes and mouth were wrapped with tape, giving her an appearance that Cox told investigators reminded him of a ''mummy.'' Miller and Sykes stripped the helpless woman and used a vibrator they found in the couple's bathroom to violate her sexually, DeLimon alleged. Miller allegedly ordered John to execute the victims using a 9mm Beretta handgun, which he did, shooting each of them twice in the head, using cushions to suppress the gunfire, according to DeLimon. He alleged that the defendants attempted to throw authorities off by making it appear as though the slayings had been racially motivated, painting racial epithets throughout the house. Quiana was black, and her husband, a native of Poland, white. Miller took the stand in his own defense, testifying that he was heavily intoxicated when he went to the house and was not entirely in control of his actions. ''I remember helping bind up and tape Sgt. Pietrzak,'' the defendant said. ''I didn't want him to keep fighting and follow us out of the house.'' Under cross-examination, Miller acknowledged being displeased with Pietrzak because the young sergeant had told the lance corporal a day earlier that his chances of being promoted to corporal were nil. Miller would not say that Pietrzak's statement was motivation for the deadly home invasion. However, during a conversation with a sheriff's investigator, the defendant called Pietrzak a ''cocky little guy'' who bragged about his possessions in front of the 15 Marines in the helicopter maintenance squad at Camp Pendleton that the victim supervised.

MURRIETA - An off-duty Riverside County sheriff's deputy who allegedly became confrontational with two California Highway Patrol officers when they arrested him on suspicion of drunken driving will be arraigned next month on misdemeanor charges. Brett Thomas Pendleton, 36, was arrested April 5 in an alcohol-related traffic stop on state Route 79. On Wednesday, the Riverside County District Attorney's Office filed two misdemeanor DUI charges -- along with an allegation of failing to submit to a law enforcement-administered chemical test -- against Pendleton. The defendant, who is free on $3,500 bail, is slated to be arraigned before Superior Court Judge Raquel Marquez on June 5. If convicted, he could face up to a year in jail, fines and probation. The deputy, who works as a patrolman in the sheriff's west county division, was suspended from duty shortly after his arrest and remains on paid administrative leave. CHP Officer Darren Meyer, a spokesman for the agency's San Gorgonio Pass office, said two highway patrol officers spotted Pendleton's 2007 GMC pickup truck on state Route 79, just south of Domenigoni Parkway, in Winchester around 2:50 a.m. on April 5 and ''initiated a traffic stop for a vehicle code infraction.'' After talking with the off-duty deputy, officers concluded he was under the influence of alcohol and placed him under arrest, according to Meyer. Pendleton told the officers that he was a deputy. ''It doesn't make a difference,'' Meyer told City News Service. ''You can't drink and drive.'' He said Pendleton was in possession of a handgun, but the firearm was never displayed in a threatening manner. At some point during his arrest, however, the defendant made verbal threats and damaged the door of the patrol car, Meyer alleged, without going into detail. No one was injured.