07 January 2014 :

An Orange County jury recommended a death sentence for Iftekhar Murtaza, 29, native of Bangladesh. Jurors deliberated for about 3 hours before announcing Thursday they had reached a verdict. Superior Court Judge Thomas Goethals decided to wait until Monday to read the verdict. Murtaza was convicted in November of the May 2007 killing of his ex-girlfriend's father, Jayprakash Dhanak, 56, and sister, Karishma Dhanak, 20, and then setting their mansion on fire. Their burned bodies were later found in a secluded area. Leela Dhanak, the ex-girlfriend's mother, was found critically wounded on a neighbor's lawn. Leela Dhanak was in a coma for weeks, but survived the attack and testified during the murder trial. Her daughter, Shayona Dhanak, who was the only family member not at home during the attack, testified about her breakup with Murtaza, is now attending law school and was not in court Monday. The revenge killings, authorities said, were driven by Murtaza's attempt to win back his former girlfriend, Shayona Dhanak, who testified that she decided to break up with him because he was overly possessive. She said to make the breakup easier, she told him it was because her parents were devout Hindus and he was Muslim. Murtaza will be formally sentenced Jan. 10. 2 of Murtaza's friends also were convicted in the killings. Vitaliy Krasnoperov was sentenced to life in prison, and Charles Murphy Jr. is scheduled to be sentenced in December.