Occurred in November 2021
A prosecutor told jurors that a Lancaster man charged with murdering his four young children and their grandmother drove to the Los Angeles County sheriff’s station afterward and asked a deputy to detain him because he had committed a crime, while a defense attorney said he was
devastated and crushed by his wife’s decision that their relationship was over.
Germarcus Lamar David, 31, is charged with five counts of murder for the Nov. 28, 2021, shooting deaths of his 11-year-old daughter, Namiyah, and his three sons, Germarcus Jr., 7; Kayden, 2, and Noah, 1, along with his mother-in-law, Ericka England, 51, who was babysitting the children while their mother was having dinner with friends.
The murder charge includes the special circumstance allegation of multiple murders.
David is also charged with three counts of assault on a child causing death.
Deputy District Attorney Diane Hong on Feb. 28 told the Lancaster jury that the evidence would show that David ``killed everyone,” showing graphic photos of the victims, who she said had suffered multiple gunshot wounds.
David subsequently drove to the sheriff’s department and wrote a note indicating that he committed a crime and was “sorry” after a deputy repeatedly asked why he thought he should be detained, the prosecutor said, noting that he subsequently told the deputy that there had been a “murder” at his house.
The mother of the four children returned from dinner with friends to find the house on Garnet Lane eerily quiet before spotting the bodies of her children and her own mother, the deputy district attorney told jurors. “I think my husband killed my whole family ... I don’t know what to
do,” the woman, Tyanna B., said in an emotional 911 call.
The prosecution will ask the jury to “deliver the only verdict that makes sense in this case -- guilty of all charges,” Hong said.
One of David’s attorneys, Anna Brief, said the prosecutor had shown jurors “the end of the story,” but not the beginning or the middle. She said David had been a “pretty good dad,” but told jurors that his relationship with his wife had some rocky points, including “some infidelity” in which he fathered a child with another woman.
The defense lawyer told jurors that David left his graveyard shift at work that night because his family was “more important” and he had to do something to “save this marriage.”
Brief said his phone calls to his wife went unanswered and he unsuccessfully tried to find her.
“The tension was building as he tried to find her,” David’s attorney said.
The defendant was “devastated” and “crushed” when she said their relationship was over, according to the defense attorney, who said he was “blinded by her rejection of his love.”
David’s attorney did not specify what kind of verdict that the defense would ask the jury to return when the case wraps up.
David has remained behind bars without bail since he was arrested at the sheriff’s station the night of the killings.
