Northridge man sentenced for murdering his adoptive parents, 16-year-old sister

A Northridge man was sentenced today to three consecutive life prison terms without the possibility of parole for murdering his adoptive parents and his 16-year-old sister at their home nearly five years ago.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Ronald S. Coen also tacked on a 25-year-to-life term for Brandon Christopher Menard. Menard sat quietly and looked straight ahead throughout the sentencing hearing as the victims' relatives and friends gave emotional statements about the Aug. 4, 2006, slayings of David Menard, a 57-year-old real estate agent; Toni Menard, 55, who worked as a nurse; and their teenage daughter, Ashley.

The defendant's older brother, Scott Menard, said he could not understand how his younger sibling could kill their parents and their younger sister.

"I want him to tell me what our parents did wrong," Scott Menard said as he addressed the judge, saying their family life was "the best" and that "we didn't get mistreated."

"I hope that he will be haunted by what he did," he said of his younger brother.

Toni Menard's younger brother, Kevin McHenry, called his nephew's actions "terrorism."

"Brandon waged terrorism on my sister, my brother-in-law and my niece," McHenry said, noting that it "had to have been absolutely horrific" for his sister to be stabbed four times and her husband to be stabbed 17 times and shot once.

"I would have preferred the death penalty," he said of the potential sentence Menard could have faced if the case had gone to trial. "The brutality was so extraordinary and so willful, those bodies were so mutilated ... I'm satisfied with life in prison without the possibility of parole."

Tracey Campbell said she "began to shake and scream and sob uncontrollably" upon hearing the news that her friends of more than 30 years had been killed.

She said the family and their friends "have been forever changed by Brandon's unspeakable acts of violence" against the couple who adopted him and their two other children after having fertility problems that could not be resolved.

Toni Menard's favorite topic to talk about was her family, according to another friend, Elaine Walsh.

She "loved them with all her heart," Walsh said, adding that the couple were "loving parents who would do anything for their children."

Menard's parents were discovered inside the front door of their home in the 17000 block of Stare Street.

The couple's daughter was stabbed eight times. Her body was discovered in the backyard, and she had a cordless phone in her hand that she had used to call 911, according to Deputy District Attorney Beth Silverman.

Menard, who was 21 at the time, later called 911 to report that he found his parents' bodies.

A motive for the killings remains unknown.

"There was no indication that there was anything about the relationship ... that would explain why this defendant chose to annihilate his family," the prosecutor said after Menard's guilty plea. "Their entire lives revolved around their children."