Miguel Diego Sandoval, 19, charged with 4 counts of murder for shooting victims ahead of house fire in Lancaster

LANCASTER, Calif. (KABC) — 19-year-old man charged with murder four people shot dead He was sleeping in a home in Lancaster when flames later erupted, prosecutors said Tuesday.

Miguel Diego Sandoval is charged with the Nov. 16 murder of 25-year-old Christine Aca-ac; brother Janvi Maquindang, 21; Edwin Garcia, 24, and Matthew Montebello, 23, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office.

The charges include allegations of gun use, as well as special circumstances allegations of murder while lying in wait and multiple murders.

Sandoval also faces one felony count each of first-degree residential burglary with a person present and arson of an inhabited structure or property.

Prosecutors alleged that Sandoval robbed the house where the four victims were sleeping, shot them, and then set the house on fire to cover up the crime.

Aca-ac, Garcia and Maquindang were pronounced dead at the scene. Sheriff’s deputies pulled Montebello from the burning home in the 44500 block of North Tabler Boulevard near East Avenue J and Challenger Way, but he died the next day, authorities said.

Another person in the home was not injured, authorities said.

“We are deeply saddened by the tragic loss of these four individuals, including a brother and sister who were brutally shot as they slept peacefully in their beds,” District Attorney George Gascón said in a statement announcing the charges. he said. “This attack has devastated the Lancaster community and our hearts go out to the families of the victims who are suffering this sudden, incomprehensible loss.”

Sandoval was arrested by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department on Nov. 21 and has remained behind bars since, according to jail records.

He is scheduled to appear in a Lancaster courtroom for a hearing on January 27.

City News Service contributed to this report.