Man indicted in Stanton murders

A Garden Grove man was indicted Thursday in the double murder of a Stanton sales associate and the man’s longtime secretary.

Hilbert Pineil Thomas, 39, was indicted on two felony counts of special circumstances murder, which means he allegedly killed the couple during a robbery and burglary.

He was also charged with one felony count each of second-degree robbery, second-degree commercial burglary, and the unlawful taking of a vehicle.

If convicted on all counts, the defendant faces a maximum sentence of life without parole, according to the Orange County district attorney’s office.

The special circumstances in make Thomas eligible for the death penalty. He is being held without bail and is scheduled to be arraigned at 9 a.m. April 30 at the Central Justice Center in Santa Ana.

According to prosecutors, Thomas is accused of walking into the Golden Sun Homes business office on Beach Boulevard in Stanton on Feb. 2, 2009 and shooting Matthew Francis Scott, a sales associate, and longtime secretary Elizabeth Ann Palmer, who lived in Costa Mesa.

They were shot in the heads, “execution style,� according to the D.A.’s office.

Thomas then left the scene in Palmer’s Lexus sedan. On Oct. 28, police found the car at the El Dorado Inn on Lincoln Avenue in Anaheim. Evidence from the vehicle led to the defendant’s identification and arrest.

Senior Deputy Dist. Atty. Ebrahim Baytieh of the Homicide Unit is prosecuting this case.

— Tom Ragan