Jilted boyfriend convicted of killing ex-girlfriend’s family
A 29-year-old Van Nuys man was convicted Friday of killing his ex-girlfriend’s father and sister and setting fire to their Anaheim Hills mansion in what authorities described as a revenge killing.
Iftekhar Murtaza lowered his head and appeared to weep as the verdict was read.
Murtaza was convicted of killing his ex-girlfriend’s father, Jaypraykash Dhanak, 56, and sister, Karishma Dhanak, 20, and attempting to kill her mother in a night of violence in 2007.
The mother was found critically wounded on a neighbor’s lawn and was in a coma for weeks but survived the attack.
The burned bodies of the father and sister were found later near UC Irvine.
The autopsy showed that Jaypraykash Dhanak had been stabbed 29 times but died as a result of a crushing injury to the back of his skull. Karishma Dhanak had a large gash on her throat and bled to death, the prosecutor said.
On the witness stand, Murtaza tried to pin the slayings on the work of others, including the son of singer Bobby Brown, whose name had never been mentioned in the case.
“We’re very pleased with the verdicts,” prosecutor Howard Gundy said.
Murtaza now faces the death penalty.
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