Death Penalty to Be Sought for Boy’s Killer

SAN DIEGO — Prosecutors will seek the death penalty for the confessed killer of a 9-year-old boy whose throat was slashed in a beachfront restroom in Oceanside, the lead prosecutor said Thursday.

Brandon Wilson, 21, a drifter and drug abuser from Wisconsin, has admitted stalking and killing Matthew Cecchi with a hunting knife Nov. 14 as part of a plan to begin a killing rampage that would not stop until he was arrested.

But Wilson, through his attorney, has also contended that he was insane at the time of the brutal attack, which resulted in public outrage and led to demands for a state law making it easier for judges to sentence child killers to death.

Wilson, who appeared calm and unemotional during a brief court hearing in Vista on Thursday, is undergoing evaluation by a team of psychiatrists.

Those evaluations will be used during a trial, set to begin in August, in which a jury will decide whether he was insane when he killed the youngster. If a jury finds Wilson sane, jurors must then make a sentencing recommendation to the judge, choosing between death or life in prison without parole.