LinasK
12-15-2005, 11:22 PM
POSTED: 2:47 pm PST December 15, 2005
UPDATED: 6:48 pm PST December 15, 2005
SAN JOSE -- Convicted felon Curtis Dean Anderson pleaded guilty Thursday to the 1999 kidnapping, molestation and murder of 7-year-old Xiana Fairchild."You never would have thought you would hear him say he was guilty," Xiana's great aunt, Stephanie Kahalekulu, said. "He was just too cocky for that. Something's happened. He didn't have the threat of the death penalty."
Following his plea, Anderson was sentenced to 50 years to life in prison. The Santa Clara County district attorney's office decided not to seek the death penalty for Anderson for several reasons, including his health and out of concern for another of his victims.
Anderson is already serving a 251-year prison sentence for kidnapping and molesting a now-13-year-old Vallejo girl who escaped from him in Santa Clara in August 2000. Prosecutors wanted to protect her from having to testify at a high-profile trial.
Chief Assistant District Attorney Karyn Sinunu said Xiana's family wanted Anderson to admit responsibility for her murder. Anderson is also ill and would likely not be executed even if had had been convicted and sentenced to death.
"We believe that he would not live out the appellate process as it is in California," Sinunu said.At his preliminary hearing in April, prosecutors presented evidence that Anderson bragged about strangling Xiana while he was molesting her and filming the entire incident.
He also bragged to a fellow inmate at Corcoran State Prison that he decapitated Xiana after killing her, according to testimony during the hearing. He also allegedly claimed to have killed 15 people during his lifetime.
Xiana disappeared from her Vallejo neighborhood in December 1999. Her remains were found in Santa Clara County, above Lexington Reservoir, in 2001. more at link:http://www.ktvu.com/news/5546010/detail.html
UPDATED: 6:48 pm PST December 15, 2005
SAN JOSE -- Convicted felon Curtis Dean Anderson pleaded guilty Thursday to the 1999 kidnapping, molestation and murder of 7-year-old Xiana Fairchild."You never would have thought you would hear him say he was guilty," Xiana's great aunt, Stephanie Kahalekulu, said. "He was just too cocky for that. Something's happened. He didn't have the threat of the death penalty."
Following his plea, Anderson was sentenced to 50 years to life in prison. The Santa Clara County district attorney's office decided not to seek the death penalty for Anderson for several reasons, including his health and out of concern for another of his victims.
Anderson is already serving a 251-year prison sentence for kidnapping and molesting a now-13-year-old Vallejo girl who escaped from him in Santa Clara in August 2000. Prosecutors wanted to protect her from having to testify at a high-profile trial.
Chief Assistant District Attorney Karyn Sinunu said Xiana's family wanted Anderson to admit responsibility for her murder. Anderson is also ill and would likely not be executed even if had had been convicted and sentenced to death.
"We believe that he would not live out the appellate process as it is in California," Sinunu said.At his preliminary hearing in April, prosecutors presented evidence that Anderson bragged about strangling Xiana while he was molesting her and filming the entire incident.
He also bragged to a fellow inmate at Corcoran State Prison that he decapitated Xiana after killing her, according to testimony during the hearing. He also allegedly claimed to have killed 15 people during his lifetime.
Xiana disappeared from her Vallejo neighborhood in December 1999. Her remains were found in Santa Clara County, above Lexington Reservoir, in 2001. more at link:http://www.ktvu.com/news/5546010/detail.html