Death row for Rialto couple
Pair convicted of killing teenage girl
Andrew Silva, Staff Writer
San Bernardino County SunA Rialto couple convicted of keeping a 16-year-old girl as a sex slave for two weeks before they tortured and killed her are on their way to death row.
"This is humanity at its worst, deviant sexual predators preying on young girls and giving in to their wildest, sickest fantasies," said Michael Rushton, chief deputy district attorney for Riverside County.
Michelle Curran was kidnapped from near her home in Las Vegas in 2001 by Michael Forrest Thornton, 50, and his partner, Janeen Marie Snyder, 26.
The teenager's body was found in a horse trailer on a Rubidoux ranch in April 2001. She had been strung up hand and foot in a tack room, sexually assaulted, and shot point blank in the head.
The two were sentenced to death Thursday by Riverside Superior Court Judge Paul Zellerbach. Snyder becomes the 15th woman on California's death row.
Only four woman have been executed in state history and none since the U.S. Supreme Court allowed the death penalty to resume in 1976.
Prosecutors believe the couple was responsible for at least one other murder, a shooting in Oklahoma and other rapes.
Rushton said they were "among the most evil" people he had ever come across.
In March 1996, the couple were believed to have kidnapped 14-year-old Jessie Peters and taken her to Lake Arrowhead where they killed and dismembered her, Rushton said. That case never made it to trial.
It was also thought they shot a woman in Oklahoma four times, Rushton said. The woman survived.
The youthful Snyder was used as bait to lure young girls into Thornton's grasp, investigators found.
The trial lasted six months and included 129 witnesses. The couple were convicted in March, and the jury recommended death for both in May.
They were found guilty of several special circumstances that made them eligible for the death penalty, including kidnapping and torture.
The woman and man that got convicted here are deserving of the punishment, the only thing that bothers me is that the punishment might not be carried out on the Woman before she dies of natural causes and the man will sit in Death Row for over 20-25 years before looking at any needles or chairs or any other way that we are killing people of the time. now we will spend the $100.000 per person a year to house these people. It isn't fair to the Tax payer to have to house and feed some one that should have been taken from their life just like they took the life of the victim, that they decided to tie up in the tack shed and do horrific things and then shoot her in the back of the head. how sick is that!!
PRETTY DAM SICK
BSRanch
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