VAN NUYS : Jury Urges Life in Prison for Man Who Killed Parents

A Van Nuys Superior Court jury has recommended life in prison for a Sierra Madre man convicted of murdering his parents in 1988.

Jeffrey Percell, 35, who was found guilty March 12 of murdering John and Doris Percell, will be sentenced June 18. The couple, both 61, were found Nov. 15, 1988, shot to death inside the family home, their bound and gagged bodies covered by blankets. The son, who lived with them and who turned himself in to Vermont police a month later, was traveling and had been pawning jewelry belonging to them.

Percell faced a possible death penalty sentence, but he refused to allow friends and family members to speak on his behalf during the trial’s penalty phase this week. Instead, he told jurors: “If you think I did it, I deserve to die.”