Crime & Safety
Prison for Stomping Mission Viejo Man Dead
Two men were sentenced Friday for killing a Mission Viejo man in prison under the false assumption he was a child molester.
Two men have been sentenced in the second-degree murder of John Chamberlain, 41, a Mission Viejo software engineer who was being held at Theo Lacy Jail on misdemeanor possession of child pornography charges when he was stomped to death by several other inmates.
Jared Louis Petrovich, 28, of Tustin, was found guilty by a jury of second-degree murder. He's been sentenced to 15 years to life by Orange County Superior Court Judge James Stotler, according to City News Service.
Co-defendant Garret Eugene Aguilar, 29, of Anaheim, was also convicted and given the same sentence.
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Petrovich admitted to tipping off other inmates that Chamberlain was supposedly a child molester—a crime Chamberlain was never charged with—but Petrovich said he was not guilty of Chamberlain's murder.
Petrovich was the leader of a white prison gang, CNS said. Prosocuters said Petrovich teamed up with a Latino gang to violently beat Chamberlain to death. As inducement, each gang offered 10 commissary items to any prisoner who participated in the beating.
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A doctor testified during trial that all of Chamberlains organs were damaged as a result of the beating.
Two other inmates have already been sentenced to 20 years to life for their involvement in the beating.
Yet two more will be sentenced later this year.
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